


We Have Your Back

by KieraElieson



Series: Kidge, if you squint. [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura is still a bit racist, Astral Plane, Black has trust issues, Cute Galra baby, Family Fluff, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Group Hugs, In the Arena, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Space Mall, We Die Like Men, just a bit, very unsophisticated science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-04 00:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 41,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17293835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KieraElieson/pseuds/KieraElieson
Summary: Pidge and Keith get captured by Galra, and put into the arena. Voltron will have to trade the Black lion for their safe return. But then they escape, mostly it's just the first chapter that deals with that. After that we have some Fluff, and maybe later we'll see Matt.





	1. The Arena

**Author's Note:**

> So this is set in early season two, before the Blade, and before space mall, so they still need Hunk to make cookies to make a wormhole, and Keith doesn't know that he's Galra.

Things had finally settled down. At least, as settled as was possible while fighting a war. Most of the Elim had left the castle, and there was only Aduc and Senir left. Aduc was fascinated by the castle, and with Coran by extension. He had begged to be allowed to stay, and now he and Coran were nearly inseparable. Senir was old, she had lost much of her family, and had become unaccustomed to Elis, and didn’t want to go back with only hazy, bad memories to greet her. She stayed to herself most of the time. 

 

They were still in the same star system. Ever larger fleets has been sent, ever since Elis had been broken free, and Voltron was needed frequently to defend the planet again. They expected that Zarkon would show up any day, to crush the resistance. Especially if he heard that it was Voltron causing it. 

 

Pidge had been busy working on a planet-wide particle barrier. Preferably just as strong as the ones the lions had. But it wasn’t nearly as simple as she had thought it would be. She and Green were tweaking and running tests and tweaking again, over and over. The largest strong barrier she had made so far would only cover a city, and the planet-wide one she had made could be easily broken through. To make things more difficult, Elis was not rich in metals or technology, so making the barrier from satellites was out of consideration. Pidge was immensely grateful that she could communicate better with Green. Without her additional questions and ideas, Pidge would be a lot farther from done than she was. Still, she was far from having a working particle barrier.

 

She’d been working now for quite a while. She wasn’t sure how long it had been, just that she was starving. 

 

“Ok, Green, so if we move this, over like this, and we slide this up to compensate for the weakness, and then…” Pidge let go of the holographic piece. The machine, also holographic, didn’t fall apart. “Let’s run the test.” Pidge turned on the machine, and the simulation of the barrier started powering up. After a few minutes she turned it off. “If it’s taking that long to charge, it won’t work this way. It barely made it to three percent. Let’s try again.”

 

Green rumbled. She showed Pidge an image of a different power source. 

 

“Can we get that here?”

 

Green rumbled again. 

 

“Well, I’ll try it anyway.” Pidge traded out the power source they had been testing with for a new one, and ran the simulation again. It took fifteen minutes to power up. She zoomed out. It covered much more than the last on had. Twelve or fifteen of these might cover the planet. “Ok, but let’s test the strength.” She shot the simulated barrier with all of the weapons that they knew the Galra had. It worked well against the weapons, until Pidge tried ramming a ship against it and realized that against anything slower than light speed, it would let it pass through. “Argh!! I’m done. I’m done. I’m going to go eat something.” Pidge turned off the simulator and stalked out of the room. 

 

She stalked all the way to the kitchen, angrily squirted food goo into a bowl, angrily ate it, and, still angry, left the kitchen. 

 

She went into the lounge. Keith was the only one in there. He was looking at something on a tablet, which was odd for him, but Pidge didn’t care enough to notice. She plopped herself down on the couch beside him. 

 

“It won’t work. I’ve tried five different things today, and not a one of them will work. I just can’t do anything with the limited materials we have here.” She curled into a ball and lay there. 

 

After a minute of silence, she turned to look at Keith. His hand had been hovering over her head, and his face had this confused expression, but as soon as she moved he jerked his hand back and stared at his tablet again. She laid back down again, pouting a little. She would have liked to have her hair petted. Just another thing that had gone wrong today. 

 

“Maybe…” Keith said slowly, “maybe if you made the big hard thing how you wanted to, and then figured out how to make the little things that we don’t have.”

 

Pidge hummed, thinking about it. “Well, but we don’t have a… I guess if I made that thing first, and then… but then… well it’s possible if…” She sat up. “Keith, that’s a genius idea.” She jumped up and ran out, then spun back around and poked her head in through the door. “Next time though, pet my hair.” Then she raced back to the hangar with Green and the simulation machine. 

  
  
  
  


It was working. She still had what felt like a million parts to make, but Hunk was able to help with that, and with each new part, as she tested it, the barrier still held. It had been a week since Keith had given her the brilliant idea, and she had already made so much progress. Soon, soon, maybe only one more week, and Elis would be protected during the space battles. No more civilian casualties. Pidge was ecstatic. 

  
  
  
  


It had been a week since he had suggested that she make the shield first and the pieces later. Since then, Pidge and Hunk had been working nonstop. Shiro and Allura, and frequently Lance, were almost always on Elis. Keith was by himself a lot of the time. Not that he especially minded. 

 

He took it upon himself, since even Hunk had begun to forget, to make sure that people ate food. Food goo was about all he could do, but he he made sure to get some in bowls and bring it to them every four hours or so. 

 

Pidge has been working herself up into a frenzy. Not that that was bad, Elis really did need the shield, and as soon as possible, but… Keith suspected that Pidge hadn’t slept more than four hours in the past two days. Not that she would admit to it. He felt like he ought to do something about it. 

 

Later, when Shiro and Lance got back, he convinced Pidge and Hunk that since they were all there, they should sit down for dinner. But he hadn’t talked to Lance, and Lance ate quickly and then ran off for some reason. Then after that, Pidge and Hunk raced back to their work. 

 

“What’s up, Keith?” Shiro asked. “You seem worried.”

 

“Just, I know she’s all happy about it, but, I think… Pidge goes to bed later than any of us, and she hasn’t been sleeping in either. She won’t stop to eat.”

 

Shiro looked thoughtful. “It’s odd of you to notice.”

 

Keith shook his head. “I notice a lot of things. I just don’t say anything about them.”

 

Shiro grinned. “Like what?”

 

Keith thought about what to say. Things that wouldn’t make him seem like a nosy, creepy guy. “Lance likes the smell of that furry plant, and Hunk keeps some to make him stuff with. Allura has a secret stash of candy. Coran spies on us when he doesn’t think we’re looking. And the one time Allura made you wear eyeliner to that event you were all nervous, and didn’t like it, but you kept the bottle.”

 

Shiro looked impressed. “So when do you find time to learn these things?”

 

Keith shrugged. 

 

“Well, it’s all right. And don’t worry about Pidge. I’ll make sure she gets some good sleep tonight.”

 

That night, Pidge goes to bed, very reluctantly, at ten. 

  
__________________________________________________  
  
  


“Keith!!!” 

 

Keith barely avoids the sweeping blow from the training dummy as he turns to the door. Pidge stalks in, turning off the training program. 

 

“I’ve just heard that  _ someone  _ doesn’t have enough to do, and was ‘very worried’ about me, and is the reason that I had to go to bed so early!”

 

Keith can’t think of a single thing to say, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have had the chance to say it. 

 

Pidge continued, with an evil smile. “So I’ve got the perfect thing for you to do to keep busy. And don’t you dare say no, because you owe me now.” 

 

Pidge grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the hangar. “You’re going to listen to all the backlogs of radio we’ve recorded from the Galra. It actually is an important job, but it’s extremely boring, and that makes it the perfect punishment for making me endure the boringness of laying in bed with nothing to do but sleep.”

 

She set him in front of a screen and handed him headphones. “This is the folder that’s holding everything we’ve intercepted in the last week. Open it, click on one, and it’ll play the audio file. Then open this, and drag it to here, and it’ll translate it.”

 

The process only took about two minutes, but, the folder said 347, so listening to all of them would take quite a while. 

 

“Just go through them all, and listen to make sure the Galra aren’t coming with some massive force.” Pidge grinned at him evilly again. “See you when you’re twenty one.”

 

“It won’t take that long,” Keith protested. 

 

Pidge just laughed and went back to her own work. 

  
____________________________________________________-  
  
  


It was pretty boring. But at the same time, it revealed things that Keith wouldn’t have guessed. For example, he had assumed that most Galra spoke in that rough, angry tone, because that’s all he had ever heard. But not all of them did. Many did, even in these routine, ‘all is clear’ transmissions, but some didn’t. There was one in particular that was especially soft spoken. Keith had heard five of his reports already. 

 

Most of the reports were innocuous, with a few talking about Elis, but no mention of Voltron. It seemed that Elis, and the whole system around it, had been in a slump recently, as far as production, so it wasn’t a priority to get it back. Keith had noticed that there were less full Galra here than anywhere else he had seen, and that they were mostly sending robots against them, but this seemed to explain that. 

 

After a few hours, when he started getting hungry, he paused to go get lunch, but just at that moment Lance walked in with a plate of some kind of sandwiches. 

 

“I come bearing gifts!” He said, very loudly. It was slightly odd to Keith, after hours of Galran in his ears, to hear English. 

 

Hunk immediately jumped up from what he was doing to inspect the food. Lance was explaining to him what kinds of alien food were in it, but Keith didn’t half understand, or care. He grabbed one and stuffed it into his mouth. The textures weren’t terrible, but the flavor was not his favorite. 

 

Keith went back to work. By evening, he realized that the soft-spoken one was being ignored by the others. But other than that, there was nothing of note in the reports.

 

He had decided that he would stay up as late as Pidge did. At eleven thirty as he listened to some reports that the computer had recorded the day before, the soft spoken Galra spoke in perfect English, angry and short. “Fine. I’ll defeat Voltron. I know that it’s them occupying Elis.” The next five audio files were also in English, and also short. “As if you could.”

 

Keith told Pidge, and she sent off the audio files to Shiro. As soon as she had done it, there was a message from Shiro. 

 

“Hey, guys, I’m in an important meeting, and there’s a distress call from a merchant ship that left yesterday. You’re closer to it in the castle. Could you check on it? Let me know immediately if it’s another attack.”

 

Pidge started a scan of the area. 

 

“Do you think he listened to the message we sent him?” Keith asked. 

 

“Nah. He probably sent that off at the same time we did.”

 

The scan came back showing that the merchant ship was being attacked by two small Galra ships. 

 

“It looks like a trap to me.” Pidge said. 

 

“There’s only two of them. Even if it is, we can easily take them out.”

 

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

 

Keith and Pidge suited up and went to their lions. Pidge left her tablet behind, so she wasn’t able to hear the message sent by Shiro a few moments later. “Wait. I’ll come with you two.”

 

Keith easily took out the two Galra ships. Pidge scanned the merchant ship. There were only a few Elim in it, but the shield had malfunctioned and trapped them. Pidge went inside to help, and a minute later called Keith to help her. Keith went inside. The cockpit of the ship was blocked off from the rest of it, partially by the malfunctioning shield, and partly by melted metal, where the ship had been hit directly by something. There was a large roundish something in the way. Pidge scanned it. 

 

“It’s not a bomb. It’s got some kind of liquid inside. It probably rolled up here from the cargo hold in the fight.” Pidge suggested. 

 

“Well, I hope it’s not expensive.” Keith pulled out his sword and sliced it in half, the liquid spilling out, and the way now clear. 

 

Six Elim climbed over the remnants of the container. 

 

“What was that?” Pidge asked. 

 

“I don’t know. The Galra shot it at us.” One of the Elim responded, before falling over. 

 

Keith smelled something sweet. It should have been impossible. The helmets should have filtered out everything. A moment later he fell to his knees, barely catching Pidge as she also fell. Then the world went black. 

  
_____________________________________________________  
  
  


Pidge slowly woke up. She was laying on some kind of table, and was very much out of it. Someone injected her arm with something, and she fell back under the wave of sleep. 

  
____________________________________________________  
  
  


“Sir, look at this.”

 

“What am I looking at?”

 

“This is the analysis from the blood sample we took. From him.”

 

“And?”

 

“Look, here’s from the other human, here’s this one, and here’s a Galran soldier.”

 

“So he’s a half breed, what—“ he turned to look at the prisoner. “Set a new course.”

 

“Yes, sir. Where to?”

 

“The farthest arena from the center of the empire.”

  
______________________________________________________________  
  
  


When Pidge woke up she was tied to a chair. 

 

“You’re human, right? You certainly appear human.” There was a small alien hovering in front of her. He looked to be at least half Galra. 

 

The room was full of tech, which Pidge would be ecstatic about, if it were not that it was all studying her. “Who are you? Where am I?”

 

“Let’s see. I wonder how much I can tell you.” The alien turned around, and did something with the screens for several minutes. “We’re taking you to the arena, since you’re a human. I’m your handler. And a scientist.” He pulled up a bunch of charts. “Now tell me, how important to humans is social connection? I’ve observed some strange signals in your brain. And how much of the social connection is based on which senses?”

 

Pidge didn’t answer. As the sedative that had knocked her out continued to wear off, she was feeling more and more anxious and panicky. 

 

“Where’s Keith?”

 

“Keith? Oh, of course humans have names. What’s your name? How much significance do names have to humans?”

 

“Where’s Keith?” Pidge asked again, lowering her voice and baring her teeth. She hoped that something like that might get through to the Galra. 

 

“Oh? Is this a common display of aggression in humans? I’m surprised. Human teeth are less of weapons than Galran teeth, yet the threat gesture is the same.”

 

Pidge realized that she was getting nowhere. “If I answer some of your questions, will you take me to Keith?”

 

“Oh! Certainly!”

 

“How many would I have to answer?”

 

“How many will you answer?”

 

“Three.”

 

“Yes! And you’ll answer them truthfully?”

 

“Yes. That was question one. I will answer truthfully if I’m answering for a deal.”

 

The alien looked more pleased than Pidge had seen on any face in a very long time. “Wonderful! Assuming that the rumor is true, and the champion is a part of Voltron, how has he changed for being in close proximity to other humans?”

 

“I don’t understand your question.”

 

“Hmm, I thought that one would be easier. Back to before, how important is it for humans to be close to other humans?”

 

“It’s very important. Most of the time, a human separated from other humans for any length of time will go insane.” 

 

“And how much of this is physical? For example, what is the difference between keeping two humans in separate rooms, where they can communicate, versus in the same room?”

 

“Provided that the humans are not commonly violent to one another, it is better to keep them together.”

 

“And this is not just because you desire to be kept closer to the other human?”

 

“I only promised to answer three questions, but I answered them all truthfully.”

 

The alien chuckled thoughtfully, which Pidge would have thought was impossible. Then he started unhooking various wires and tubes from her, and pushed her chair, with her still tied to it, into the hallway. Just a few doors down, he opened one, and pushed her in. Inside the room, which was bare, there was a glass wall separating the parts of the room. Keith was on the other side of the wall. He jumped up and hit the wall with his fist. He yelled something, but the wall must have been soundproof, or at least mostly so, because Pidge couldn’t hear what he had said. 

 

“Now,” the alien said, closing and locking the door. “Since you’ve been vastly more cooperative, and seem to be less violent, I’ll give you a bit more freedom. Give me your hand.” 

 

With it being tied to the chair, Pidge could neither have given him her hand or kept it from him. He took her hand and pressed it to a tablet. Pidge jumped, and let out a suprised yell when something pierced her palm. 

 

“This will allow you to pass the wall. Just set this hand against the wall first, and it will let you pass through. It won’t let you out of the door, of course, and if I need, I can remove it, but this should give you a bit of freedom, and hopefully you’ll remain just as cooperative. If I let you out of the chair, you won’t try to attack me or anything, right?”

 

“I only promised three questions.”

 

“Then let’s make another deal. I’ll let you out of the chair if you don’t try to attack me or get out the door.”

 

Pidge knew that she couldn’t escape right now. She needed more information, and Keith. “For today, I won’t try to attack you or break out the door.”

 

“Fair enough.” The alien undid the cuffs holding her to the chair. “Make sure you use your right hand first when you go through the wall.” He left the room, locking the door behind him. 

 

Pidge looked back at Keith. He was still hitting the wall, but he had stopped yelling. She set her right hand against the wall. After a few seconds, the hard glassy feel of the wall changed to feel like cold putty. It was not easy to push through it, but it was possible. 

 

As soon as she was through, she grabbed Keith around the waist. He let out an odd squeak, instead of the questions she knew were roiling inside of him. A few seconds later he put his arms around her. “Are you alright?”

 

She didn’t answer, other than to hug him tighter. She didn’t know if she was alright. She had just negotiated with an alien that could have done anything to her. She was headed to an arena, probably the same one that even Shiro still had nightmares about. And there wasn’t anything that she could do about it. At least, not yet. 

  
  
______________________________________________________________  
  


Pidge woke up in the morning hungry and needing to pee. Thankfully, the scientist alien was not long in coming, and Pidge explained some more aspects about taking care of humans. 

 

Keith had been quiet all morning. Probably weirded out by her neediness. The thing is, she had never thought herself a touchy person. She had been frequently annoyed by her mom and brother always wanting hugs. But… out here, where it wasn’t just given to her. And especially after spending a month with the Elim, who were very very touchy with one another, but, it just wasn’t the same. Even after she got to know Aduc, and Senir, and some of the others, her body just wouldn’t let her receive comfort from them. So she had to be a bit needy. Even if she did creep out Keith. 

 

The scientist did something to the room so that they could hear him from the other side of the wall, and he gave them food, then sat down to watch them eat it, taking notes the whole time. It was a tray filled with many very small bowls of food. Pidge grimaced. She was as much an experiment as anything she had ever worked on. It wasn’t a good feeling. And if the Galra did understand humans, would it be a good thing? Or would it make the Galra much more dangerous? Either way, she wasn’t going to eat food she didn’t like. 

 

“You said that we were headed towards the arena. Do you intend to make us fight in it?” Pidge said, being sure that the scientist heard her. 

 

“Of course. Now I get to ask a question.”

 

“I never made that deal.”

 

“Then let’s make one. I’ll trade honest answers with you.”

 

Pidge looked at Keith. He nodded. 

 

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

 

“You’ve both tried that dish, second from my left, and all the way on the end. Why didn’t you eat it?”

 

Pidge looked down, pointing to one and quirking an eyebrow.  He nodded. “It’s sour, and it doesn’t have any sweet to it.”

 

He looked at Keith. 

 

“If I answer, I get to ask a question too.”

 

The alien nodded. 

 

“It tastes like fish, and it’s vinegary. I don’t like it. Where are we right now?”

 

“Oh,” the scientist said. “I honestly can’t answer that one. I’ll give you another question though, since I can’t.”

 

Keith looked thoughtful. “You seem to find us important for research. Why are you going to put us into a situation where we’d die?”

 

“Well, ideally, you won’t die. As long as I handle you two well, and particularly if you remain cooperative, you won’t die in the arena.” He shifted his position. “My turn again. Why are you, Keith, cooperating with me? You certainly didn’t before.”

 

Keith frowned. “Partly because I get more information this way. And partly because she doesn’t think that it’s dangerous, and I trust her judgement.”

 

“Aww! I had expected that to be your answer, but I thought for sure I’d get her name for free out of it. And the information, of course, is because you believe that you can escape. You can’t, I’ll tell you that now, but it is a clever thing to do.”

 

“If you want my name so bad, I’ll swap it for yours,” Pidge said. 

 

“I’ve been going by Marou recently.”

 

“In that case, I’ve been going by Pidge recently.”

 

“But Pidge is not your name?”

 

“I don’t have to answer that. It’s my turn. Has anyone come after us?”

 

“Yes. I won’t tell you who, or how close they got, but there have been people trying to take you from me.”

 

“My turn,” Keith said. “In the arena, the fights are to the death, so what makes you think that we will consistently win?”

 

“Your genetic makeup suggests that you two, especially you, Keith, will be strong fighters.”

 

“But size and age don’t mean anything?” Pidge asked, getting worried now by being reminded of the impending doom. 

 

“Slow down. I have two turns now.” Marou said. “And I’ll use them both at once, since this will surely be a doozy. And after that I’ll head out, I have more work to do to get ready. Were either of you aware that Keith is at least 35% Galra?”

 

Pidge’s face went slack. No. She had had no idea. Dimly, she heard Keith protesting, and Marou leaving. 

 

She looked over, Keith was curled in on himself, his face contorted into a mask of unbelief. She set her hand on his shoulder. 

 

“We’ll find out what happened. Don’t worry.”

  
_____________________________________________________________________  
  
  


When Marou next came back, he was flanked by two very large Galran guards. 

 

“Sorry for this show of force, I just can’t let either of you think that there’s a hope of escape. We’ve arrived. I’m getting you two ready, and you have a battle in an hour. Are either of you hungry?” As he said this, the wall slid down, and the guards took hold of Keith and Pidge. Pidge was just held, but Keith’s arm was twisted behind his back. 

 

Marou led them out, still talking. “For this first match, the win condition is the first blood drawn. It’s potentially fatal, yes, but not necessarily so. I’ve signed you in as a team, but I cannot pick your opponents. If you need to eat anything, let me know now, while I can still do something about it. You will not have armor, but you will have short swords.”

 

Marou talked the whole time he was helping them get ready. Then, all too soon, Pidge heard the distant roar of a crowd. Marou stopped them before they went through the gate. Pidge was trembling, though she was trying very hard to hide it. 

 

“Listen carefully. I’m not ultimately in charge of you. I didn’t capture you, and I have no ill will towards you whatsoever. Do well in this match. If possible draw it out longer, but don’t, just don’t lose.” There was a small window nearby, and he directed their attention through it, and pointed out a Galra sitting in the audience. “He’s in charge, so put on a good show for him, and we might all survive the week.”

 

The gate opened. Marou and the guards left. Pidge stepped out into the arena. She saw the Galra that Marou had pointed out. She might be fighting, but it sure wasn’t for him. As a demonstration of this, she caught his eye, and flipped him off. Then the other gate opened, and she turned back to the fight at hand. 

 

Keith stepped ahead of her. 

 

The two aliens they were pitted against were larger than they were, much larger. They also had battle hammers. Pidge hoped that that meant that they were also slower. Because if they weren’t… 

 

“Keith, if it’s just first blood, I’m going to go be bait. You’ve gotta got one of them.”

 

“What?! No!” 

 

Pidge ran away. Hopefully, after they had seen Keith step in front in a ready stance, and then seen her run away, they would consider her an easier target, and chase her. Then if Keith could get one of them from behind. To try and help things more, she angled her run to be easier for them to get to her than to get to him. 

 

A heavy thump reverberated through the ground. A battle hammer had landed just behind her. Pidge shrieked, even though it hadn’t hit her. She suddenly realized what she had been trying to keep from realizing, that death was a very real possibility. Adrenaline hit her body, and she ran faster, spurred on by the thumping of heavy feet behind her. 

 

She looked sideways. Keith was dodging the hammer of the other alien. Her plan hadn’t worked. It had been their only chance, and it had failed. A terrified, angry shriek clawed its way up out of her chest. 

 

No. She couldn’t give up. And she couldn’t keep running forever. She needed a new idea. 

 

Four steps later it came. An idea. If she could pull it off. Immediately, she dropped to her knees, sticking her sword out blindly above her. The alien plowed into her, knocking her to the ground, and half landing on her. But, her sword managed to catch on its thigh. It wasn’t much, but it was blood. The alien scrambled back up, and raised its hammer. 

 

Pidge jumped up and ran away again. What happened?!! She won! Didn’t she?! Keith was running too. She turned to run closer to him. 

 

“I hit him! Why?”

 

Keith shook his head. “Don’t know.”

 

Some kind of horn blared, and the aliens stopped chasing them. Pidge stumbled and Keith tried to catch her. They both went tumbling to the ground together. Guards came out of the gates and hauled them off the field. They were taken to a small cell and left there. 

 

Once the guards had left, Keith turned to Pidge. “Are you all right? Did you get hurt?”

 

Pidge took stock of her body. Her knees were bruised, and hurt quite a bit, her legs were burning from all the running, and her chest hurt from where she had been landed on. She told Keith. 

 

He took hold of her shoulders and shook her. “What were you thinking?! You could have died! You screamed and I thought he had hit you! Pidge, you can’t do that! You can’t!” His eyes had tears in them. 

 

Pidge grabbed Keith. “I was trying to get us out of there alive!”

 

Keith pulled her into a fierce hug, and she felt him shaking. “You scared me. You really, really scared me.”

 

“I’m sorry.” Pidge hugged him back tightly. Before she knew it she was crying, and not nearly as quietly as she would have liked. 

  
___________________________________________________________  
  
  


Marou watched the footage again. He paused it just as Pidge screamed the first time. He zoomed in on Keith, finding exactly what he had thought he would. For the next few seconds, until Pidge ran into Keith’s line of sight again, his pupils narrowed and his eyes glowed yellow. This was also the time at which they won the match, when Keith attacked his opponent so furiously and landed several good slices. But he also left himself open to attack, and had he not seen Pidge, changed tactics, and started dodging he would have certainly been flung across the arena on the end of a hammer. 

 

Marou sighed. He really would have to insist on more promptly ending the match next time. 

  
____________________________________________________________  
  
  


A few hour later Marou came to get Pidge and Keith. He took them back to their room, and Pidge noticed this time that they were boarding a ship, and that their room was not in the same building as the arena. It was a small thing, but it meant that they didn’t intend to keep them at this arena forever. Then it hit her, and she could have slapped herself. They were in a ship. If they did escape, they were already in the getaway car. They’d just have to overpower… well, a spaceship full of Galra. But, they were fighting in an arena. If they could do well there, they’d be much better equipped to overpower that many people. 

 

Much as she disliked the way it made her feel, it seemed that playing along was still her best strategy. She wished that she could discuss it with Keith, but she was positive that every inch of their room was constantly being watched and listened to, and she wouldn’t doubt that there were hidden recording devices in her own clothing. 

 

They were taken to their room, and Marou sat on the other side of the barrier. 

 

“Again, I’m sorry that we had to do that so quickly. The schedule I was given was outdated.” He said. “Now, the plan is that we do another fight, similar to the previous one, each day until the end of the week. Then, the final fight of the tournament will have different rules. If you two happen to make it there, you’ll have to disarm your opponent or otherwise incapacitate them.”

 

“What if we don’t?” Keith asked. 

 

“Don’t what?”

 

“Don’t make it to the final match.”

 

“That can’t happen. Even though the stakes are low, you aren’t allowed to lose a match.”

 

“But what happens if we lose one?”

 

Marou narrowed his eyes. “Don’t.”

 

“But what would happen?” Pidge asked. “Because I’d guess that if we lost one, we wouldn’t have to keep fighting, and we wouldn’t get to any of the higher stakes matches.”

 

Marou glared at them. “I don’t know what would happen. I know that it would be bad, not only for you, but also for me, and to prevent it I would do a lot.”

 

“What is a lot?” Pidge asked, pushing the limit she had set for herself. 

 

“I don’t know. I don’t want to have to think of what I would have to do in that situation.”

 

“Why? Why do you care about us?” Pidge asked. 

 

Marou frowned, in a thoughtful way. “Certainly part of it is that I’m incredibly interested in studying humans, but also, I’ve been in your situation before. It’s why I use this hoverboard, I can’t hardly walk anymore. And if I can prevent that happening to someone else, I’m going to do that. Even if it means I have to be mean to you.”

 

“Then let us go.” Keith said. 

 

“I can’t. Even if I care for your well being, I care for my life more.”

 

“Then come with us,” Pidge said. 

 

“Look, this is a hard conversation, so I’m going to leave. I’ll look into your next match, see what I can find to help you.” Marou did leave, looking very conflicted. 

 

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Keith spoke up. “So I saw that you managed to land a hit on the guy that was chasing you. How’d you do it?”

 

Pidge chuckled. “You remember those memory-sharing things we used, during all the bonding emphasis days?”

 

Keith nodded. 

 

“Well, Lance really likes them, and a week or so ago, he showed me this memory. He was chasing these birds, chickens I think, and he was faster than them, but only by a little, and so he was about to catch one, and then it just sat down. He was quite a few steps ahead before he could stop himself, and by then it had run off in a different direction. It was really neat to see it through Lances eyes. Anyway, I thought that I could do something like that, except I stuck my sword out. I didn’t expect to get fallen on top of though.”

 

Keith made a noise. It was probably intended to be a chuckle, but it sounded more like scoffing. 

 

“Don’t make fun of me! It worked anyway.”

 

Keith gave her a smile that could be considered apologetic. 

 

After that, they fell into silence until Pidge said, very quietly, “Do you think that we should try to throw the next match?”

 

“It depends. If we’re paired up with giants again, it’d be more dangerous to throw the match.”

 

“What if we’re not?”

 

“I don’t know.” Keith paused. “Don’t tell me what you found, but do you think that we could escape through the arena?”

 

Pidge had been far too much in fear of her life to look for escape paths. “I don’t know about the arena, but I think that, if I can get you through this barrier, and us out of the room, we’d have a decent chance of escaping in this ship.”

 

Keith nodded. “In that case, and if Marou isn’t lying, I think we’d have a better chance if we fought.”

 

“Well, I don’t think he’s lying. It wouldn’t really benefit him to lie.”

 

“The benefit would be our cooperation.”

 

“Nn.” Pidge entirely switched subjects. “Keith, I don’t like this. It feels like… we’re entirely too calm about being kidnapped. And we might very soon be forced to kill people, but we’re content to sit tight and play along.”

 

Keith held out his hand and stared at it. “I know what you mean. But if fighting back would do anything we would do it. I did try fighting back, before they brought you here, and it didn’t do any good.” 

 

“It’s just… Shiro was in the same situation we’re in, and he tried to fight back. We aren’t, and we’re being treated much better. It feels like, somehow, I’m making light of his pain, like I’m betraying him somehow.”

 

Keith’s hand clenched into a fist. “Shiro was a pawn to them, expendable. They want us alive, that’s why we’re being treated differently.” He ran his fist into her shoulder. “You’re not betraying him in any way. I’m positive he would say the same.”

  
_________________________________________________  
  
  


“They’re hailing us, Princess.” Coran said. 

 

“Open the channel.”

 

The video opened with a Galran commander. “I wish to trade with you.”

 

Allura shoved down the anxiety, the fear, and presented only a cold face to the commander. 

 

“I know where the red and green paladins are. I will trade them for the black lion and for Elis.”

 

“There is no reason for me to believe that you are telling the truth.” 

 

A picture filled the screen. Keith and Pidge sitting in a small white room. They weren’t wearing their armor, and were covered in dirt, but they also appeared to be unharmed. 

 

“At the moment they are unharmed. However, I cannot promise the same if you do not accept my deal.”

 

Allura couldn’t think of an answer. There was no way for her to answer either yes or no. On one hand, she was immensely relieved to find that they were safe, and was sure that the other paladins would be as well. On the other hand, they could easily be very much not okay if she refused. 

 

“I’ll let you think about it. I will contact you in five vargas. Do not leave Elis or the deal will be off.”

 

The screen turned black. Coran couldn’t reopen the channel, and he couldn’t trace the signal either. 

  
_________________________________________________________  
  
  


Lance fidgeted. He stood next to Hunk, waiting on the Galran commander to contact them. Both he and Hunk had been strictly forbidden from speaking, but they could watch. 

 

Then the call came through. The Galran commander was perfectly poised, and he was carefully against a blank wall, so that nothing could be traced to find his location. 

 

“Have you considered the deal?”.

 

“Yes,” Shiro said. “But first, I want a proof of life.”

 

“What did you have in mind?”

 

“The red paladin holding up three fingers, and the green paladin holding up two.”

 

The commander left the screen, and a moment later a video started playing. 

 

_ “Keith, put up three fingers, and Pidge, put up two.” The person holding the camera said.  _

 

_ “Why?” Pidge asked.  _

 

_ “It has to do with certain negotiations.” _

 

_ “Shiro, don’t you dare trade me for the universe,” Keith said, but he held up three fingers.  _

 

_ Pidge frowned. “Our lives aren’t worth thousands of others.” She held up two fingers.  _

 

The video stoped. 

 

Lance looked at Shiro. He couldn’t see his face, but his back was hunched up and tight. 

 

“What do you say?” The commander asked. 

 

“I accept the deal.”

 

“Good. I’ll send you coordinates for the meeting place. I’ll expect you there in seven quintants.”

 

“Why such a delay?” Allura said, her voice barely masking her anger. 

 

“It ought to take you that long to get to the meeting place.”

 

Coran began mapping the coordinates that showed up on the screen. “It’s true. Without a wormhole, it will take us close to that much time to get to this place.”

 

“Fine. We’ll meet you in a week. But if either of them are harmed I swear I’ll make you regret it.” Shiro said. 

  
_______________________________________________________  
  
  


Marou came in the next morning with a much smaller tray. “Well, seeing as you’ll be leaving after a week, I’ll have to move ahead with tests more quickly.”

 

“What kinds of tests?” Pidge asked, trying to put a scientific curiousity into her voice, rather than the worry she felt. 

 

“For example, I want to see how humans respond to quintessence in various forms.”

 

He had brought two bowls only, but what was in them was some of the food that Pidge and Keith had preferred the day before. 

 

Keith was rather brooding, and didn’t answer questions, so Pidge was alone in talking to Marou. 

  
______________________________________________________________  
  
  


This time, when the guards came in to get Pidge and Keith, they separated them. Keith they took into another room, and stuck some kind of band on his neck. He fought against it. Despite his previous decision to go along with everything until he could find an opening, this was just too much. But he was held down and the band forcibly put on. 

 

After that, he was given some kind of light armor, but no weapon. 

 

Keith was itching for the fight. His nerves had been on edge all morning. 

 

He was taken to the gate, but Pidge wasn’t there. Marou floated up to him. 

 

“This battle will hinge on you. You have only one opponent, but he is large, and has won several battles before. Don’t let him hit you, but try not to win too fast either. The entertainment you give the crowd is what keeps you safe, not your victory. Good luck.”

 

The gate opened, and Keith saw another gate opening on the other side of the arena. Pidge was behind that gate, and would have run to him, but he held up a hand to stop her. He sent her a series of hand signals which he hoped that she would understand as ‘watch for any escape routes’ but he doubted that she would. She gave him a thumbs up. 

 

Then a gate to his left started opening, very slowly. Whatever was behind it roared. Keith started moving right, to meet up with Pidge on the opposite side of the the ring from whatever it was. They met just before its gate had fully opened. Pidge was also unarmed.

 

“Don’t get near it,” Keith warned, his voice low and menacing, and his eyes trained on the beast.

 

“How are we going to beat it?” Pidge asked.

 

“I don’t know. Just stay away from it as much as you can, and keep an eye out for a way out of here.”

 

Pidge nodded.

 

As soon as its gate was open, it charged out. It roared again, and then ran at them. Keith dodged several times, growing more and more frustrated that he had nothing to fight back with. It turned away from him, and he realised that it was going after Pidge. Everything in him jumped after the beast, his whole body tingled and rushed. He was so intent on going after the thing that he barely noticed the sting on the back of his neck. He swung many times at the beast, though his fists did little more than nothing, even when they did connect. 

 

It turned back to him, swinging its arm in an arc that threw him to the ground. He landed hard, all the breath flying from his lungs. The beast turned back toward Pidge. Keith gasped for air, trying to get back up. The thing caught Pidge, and she screamed. Keith flew it it, jumped up and grabbing its hand. He sunk his teeth into a finger, clenching his jaw as tightly as he could. The beast howled, and dropped Pidge. It slammed Keith into the ground. He felt the crunch of several ribs, as the beast leaned its weight into its hand on his chest, but he didn’t let go of it. 

 

Then the alarm rang. Pidge pulled him away, and the beast lumbered back to its gate, blood dripping from one finger. 

 

“Keith! Keith! Answer me!” 

 

He could barely see her. Static rushed in his ears, and his vision grew dark. 

 

Suddenly a new pain blossomed on his cheek, jolting him back to his senses.

 

“Keith! Wake up and talk to me. Keith!”

 

He was in the holding cell just outside of the arena. When he had gotten there he had no idea.

 

“Answer me or so help me I will slap you again!”

 

“M’fine,”

 

Pidge burst into tears. “Keith! I know my plan was dumb last time, but yours was so, so much worse…” She cradled his head, which he then realised was in her lap. “You have broken ribs, four of them, and probably several fractures as well.”

 

Keith grabbed her hand, trying to help her feel a bit better.

 

“I can’t keep doing this. We can’t. This splitting up thing. It’s not working at all. If one of us nearly dies in every fight it’s not worth it. I’d rather take whatever punishment they’ve been threatening.”

 

Keith agreed, and he wanted to say so, but his chest was stabbing him with every shallow breath, and he didn’t want to figure out how much more it would hurt to talk. 

  
______________________________________________________________  
  
  


Marou came shortly after. He took Keith away, promising to bring him back healed. Pidge didn’t know how it was going to happen. Whether or not the Galra had some form of healing pods like the Alteans did. 

 

Marou took her to the white room a bit later, saying that Keith was with a doctor.

 

“So, I noticed that you didn’t say anything about Keith’s… physical changes.”

 

Pidge flinched. 

 

“Why is that?” Marou asked. “I’ll trade you an answer to something.”

 

“Because I didn’t like it. And it went away anyway when he woke up.”

 

“You don’t think that he ought to know?”

 

“No.” Pidge frowned intensely at the floor. “I don’t know. But now it’s my turn. You don’t seem surprised by this at all, like you know why it happened. What do you know about it?”

 

“Well, seeing that he is half Galra, I wanted to test some things. I noticed in your last match that his Galran genes show more visibly when he is upset, like when you screamed that first time. So I put something in his food this morning that would, I hoped, make his emotions run higher. Then, when he was sufficiently agitated in the fight, I injected a few drops of a weaker quintessence into his bloodstream, where it would run directly into his brain. And I must say, the results are quite fascinating.”

 

“You did what?! You could have killed him!”

 

“On the contrary. Were he not as much stronger as he became, and if he did not grow fangs, you two would most certainly have lost, and likely sustained more injuries than you have now.’

 

“You didn’t know what quintessence could do to humans, what it his body had rejected it?”   
  


“Yes, that was indeed a worry. That’s why I mentioned this morning that I was annoyed by the shortened time frame. I wonder if the fangs stayed after he woke up. I was surprised that they came so easily, but I imagine that they wouldn’t retreat quite as easily as they came.”

 

“What if there are side effects? What if he gets hurt?”

 

“I think that you are mistaking me. I want to keep you two healthy and happy for research. If there are side effects, I want them, so that I can record them, and possibly find out how to avoid or replicate them in other races. Now I certainly don’t want him to get hurt, and I’ll try to help him if he does, but that is a secondary issue to me.”

 

“So you don’t care.”

 

“Of course I care, just not in the way you seemed to think.”

 

“Just… leave me alone. Please.”

 

Marou left. Pidge was alone, in an empty, white room, where she could be forced to do almost anything, and she’d have little choice in the matter. She curled up into herself. She didn’t like this. She couldn’t handle it like she had thought she could. Keith was hurt. Voltron was probably on its way there, and it wasn’t a rescue mission, it was a hostage exchange. She had thought, between her own smarts and the green lion, that she could eventually fix everything. That even when things got bad, they’d be back under control soon enough. But that wasn’t the case. She had thought that she was smart enough to figure anything out, given the time. But that wasn’t the case. She had tried on the wall in the cell, on the door, on the chip in her hand. But nothing worked out the way she wanted. Maybe neither her nor Keith had died yet, but Keith was seriously hurt, and there had been nothing that she could have done about it. Nothing she could do now. It hurt.

  
_______________________________________________________  
  
  


Keith woke up and stumbled out of the pod, but not into the arms of friends as usual. He stumbled out and fell to his knees. A gruff voice told him to get up, and hauled him up by his arm. He was out into the hallway and walking back to the room before he remembered where he was and why. 

 

He was shoved inside the room, and the lights had been dimmed, so it must be nighttime. Pidge was huddled into the corner of the room, curled up, asleep, but there were tear tracks on her face. 

 

“What happened?” He ground out in a quiet hiss.

 

He hadn’t intended to wake her, but as the words left his mouth Pidge startled awake, her eyes blown wide as she looked at his face. 

 

“Keith, I need you to stay with me.” 

 

There was an odd tone to her voice, a look in her eyes. It was… fear? Keith was confused for a moment, before his brain solved it. He was angry, not at her, not at all at her, if anything it was for her, but she couldn’t know that. He forced himself to calm down. To focus on the moment. She was here, he was here. They were safe and uninjured, at least for the moment. It was all right. She didn’t need his anger, she needed comfort. 

 

Pidge stood up, the fear in her eyes melting away. She hugged him tight. “Stay with me.”

 

He dropped his chin down onto her head, pulling her closer to him. “Don’t worry. I’m not leaving.”

 

He carefully sat down in the corner, pulling her with him. After a moment, he realized that they were really awfully close, and became embarrassed. Pidge didn’t know or care. She clung to him as she fell back asleep, as if she was afraid that by letting go she would lose him. Soon after, he fell asleep too. 

  
_______________________________________________________________  
  
  


_ Keith stumbled into his house. Numb. Empty. The emptiness of the house did nothing to help. He had to pack, but packing was the farthest thing from his mind. He went straight to his father’s room, and jumped into the bed, curling up in the blankets. The blankets still had their distinctive smell. Too many times of falling into bed without showering. The blankets were still here. He was still here. Only like this could he pretend that if he fell asleep he might wake up to his father coming back.  _

 

_ He stretched out, the tips of his fingers brushing something at the edge of the bed, between the mattress and the headboard. He pulled it out. It was a cd case, and on the cd was written ‘for my darling’ in handwriting that was oddly spidery. Keith put the cd into the player that his dad had kept on the dresser. He’d listen to it while he found what he wanted to take with him.  _

 

_ “Hello, Darling! I’ve figured out how to record on one of these, so me and your sweet little son here are going to record something for you.” The voice was feminine, almost baby-talk, and there was a baby cooing in the background.  _

 

_ “Now, since I might have to go away for a bit sometimes, and since you are such a new dad, I’ll give you some instructions on how to take care of Keith.” _

 

_ Keith gasped. It was… his mother’s voice? He couldn’t even remember her face, but, her voice was right here.  _

 

_ “So, if he ever gets really grumpy, really really bad. You’ve already tried changing his diaper, and feeding him, and rocking him, and nothing works. What you want to do-“ the baby noises interrupted. “Oh, yes, say hello to Daddy. Anyway, what you’ll need to do is hold him close to your chest, and put your chin down on his head. He’ll wiggle around, and be generally adorable, and definitely stop crying. But the thing is, it’s a very Galran custom, so I don’t want him to get too used to it. He might get picked on by other kids when he gets older. So only if he’s really grumpy. Or maybe you can do something g similar, but more normal, like ruffling up his hair. It’s so soft, yes it is. You have such pretty, soft hair Keith.” Her voice stopped, and there were kissy noises.  _

 

_ “I do worry, you know, about him looking more like me as he grows up. I’d like him to stay looking just like his dad. We’ve got to keep him in warm places, so the fur won’t have any reason to grow in.” _

 

_ Keith stopped the cd. He was confused, and he didn’t think he wanted to listen anymore. Then he changed his mind, clicked the play button. The front door banged open.  _

 

_ “Keith! Are you ready?” _

 

_ “No!” _

 

_ “Well, hurry. We’ve got to go.” _

_ Keith stopped the cd, having not heard any of the few more sentences he could have. He grabbed a few things. His jacket, his dad’s vest, his mom’s knife. Surely he could keep these, could protect these, no matter where the strangers took him.  _

 

Keith was suddenly woke up by the lights being turned on. Pidge shifted, her hair tickling his chin. He ducked it down onto her head, feeling a rush of protectiveness and affection run through him. He suddenly felt like he had dreamed something like this, but he couldn’t remember what. 

 

A quiet voice, muffled by his shirt, made its way into his ears. “I know I want hugs all the time now, and it’s probably annoying, but I’m really glad that you give them to me. It used to be… when I was really little, and mom and dad were busy, Matt would put me to bed. We would cuddle up together, and he would tell me a story, and I’d go to sleep. Even when I got older, if I ever had a nightmare, he’d let me into his bed. And then he went off to the Garrison, and I was fine with it. Thought I was being dumb and childish to miss him so much. It still feels childish, sometimes. But after… after it was a whole month, and there was nobody to even ask. I decided, at least for hugs, I wouldn’t stop myself anymore. But now… you’re just being so nice, and, if anything happens to either of us, I just wanted you to know that it means a lot to me, that you let me stay like this, and don’t make fun of me.” Pidge sounded close to tears. 

 

Keith didn’t know what to do. He just held her close. “Nothing’s going to happen. We’ll get out.”

 

“If we get out, help me find them. I can’t stand knowing that they’re in this same situation, or one worse.”

 

“We will get out. And then we’ll find them. Promise.”

  
_____________________________________________________________  
  


But life wasn’t so kind as to allow them to remain that way for long. 

 

Soon, they were geared up and about to head into the arena. They had small daggers, two apiece, and helmets, but no other armor. The arena was also different. There were various obstacles, set up as if to imitate ruins. As soon as the other gate lowered, and Pidge saw who they were up against, she elbowed Keith.

 

“I have a plan, but to do it, I need you to keep the bigger one busy, and give me some time.” She whispered.

 

“I thought that we weren’t going to split up anymore!” He hissed back.

 

“Look at them! I could take the littler one in my sleep.”

 

And it was probably true. They looked more like birds than any alien Pidge had ever seen. Unless they had loads of combat experience hiding away, and it would have to be hidden deep, Pidge would have no problem.

 

“Just keep him busy, and don’t either of you be the one to draw first blood.”

 

The birds were starting to run towards them, spreading out to flank them. Keith nodded before turning away.

 

Pidge ran straight at the smaller one, who didn’t turn away. She was brave, but Pidge desperately hoped that it was the front it looked like. If she was this wrong twice in three days… well, she wouldn’t be happy with herself. She charged her straight, and tackled her, pinning her to the ground. The bird-girl struggled and squirmed underneath her. 

 

“That’s it. Keep fighting me. Make it look good.” Pidge said.

 

“What? Until you kill me? You sick--” The word she said next wasn’t intelligible, but it probably wasn’t pleasant either. 

 

“I’ve got an escape plan. You can be in on it.”

 

“What?” She flapped harder, nearly escaping Pidge.

 

“After the match, you saw which gate we came out of. I’m sure that your feathers can pick those kinds of locks in the temporary cages. Get you and your partner out, then come get us. If you get us out, I promise I’ll take you two with me. I know of a ship, and my partner can take out any guards, I’ll fly the ship and get us out of here. Just help us get out of the cage.”

 

“How can I possibly trust you?!”

 

“I really have no idea, especially since I need to win this match to make it work. Sorry.” Pidge caught the end on one of her wings, and cut the smallest she could while not having the knife wrested from her. The cut bled, and Pidge let the alien up. She ran back to her partner, who was still trying his hardest to get at Keith.

 

A minute later, the alarm went off. 

 

As they left the field, Pidge nudged Keith. “That thing on your neck didn’t go off yet, did it?”

 

“No? Why?”

 

“Just wait.”

 

Once they were in the cage, and the guards had left, Pidge explained her plan to Keith. He approved, and let her tinker with the band on his neck. A few minutes later the bird-girl fluttered up to their cage, nervous and quaking, but determined. Pidge had it just about ready.

 

“Ok, Keith, follow me, since I know the way, and if we see any guards that try to catch us, just pound the thing with your fist. It ought to go off, and that’ll give you the boost you need to take them down.”

 

The alien girl opened the cage.

 

“Where’s your partner?” Pidge asked.

 

“Just cause he was paired with me doesn’t mean he is my partner.”

 

“Ok then, we’ll deal with that later. For now, follow me.”

 

Pidge remembered the hallways pretty well, and was sure that she could find her way into the ship. Into the cockpit, she was slightly less sure, but it was a chance that had to be taken. They didn’t run into any guards. As she had hoped. She hoped that the matches had some sort of betting system on them, and that the guards would be busy just after collecting their wins.

 

The problem came when they had gotten inside the ship. She knew that the hallway to the cockpit would be slightly larger, more well lit, something to signify that it was important. But the way that they entered the ship must not be frequently used. She wandered for a few minutes before the bird-alien started to get tense, as evidenced by an ever-growing sound of rustling.

 

Pidge opened a random door and nearly jumped out of her skin. Partly because it was the observation room, and that would help them immensely, and partly because there was a sleeping Galra sitting in the chair. She nudged Keith to the door. He peeked inside.

 

“Stay here, don’t open the door until I say.”

 

He went inside quietly, shutting the door behind him. There was a lot of scuffling noises, and one short yell that got cut off, and then a dull clang. It was another moment before Keith opened the door, dressed in the guard’s armor and holding his gun.

 

“If we come across anyone else, it’ll be easier to explain if I look like a guard.”

 

“You don’t sound like one,” the bird-alien piped up.

 

Keith growled in such a realistic imitation of a Galra that even Pidge jumped. Then she remembered that they were literally running away, and turned to look at the cameras. After a minute, she had figured out where to go, and was leading the other two in that direction. They made it to the cockpit, but when she peeked inside, there were two Galra inside. 

 

“I’ll go in, distract them, and then--”

 

Keith cut her off. “No.” His voice still had a growl in it, and his pupils had shrunk into slits. His eyes gave off a faint yellow light, and his teeth were slightly larger than normal. 

 

Pidge shrank back, and let him in first. This time she only heard a blaster firing twice, and a scraping sound. When he opened the door there were only two bodies in the corner. She went straight to the console, and prepared the ship for lift-off. It was ready to fly, but it needed a Galran signature before it would do anything else. Keith sat down in the pilot’s chair.

 

“I’ll get us as far away from here as I can. You two blockade the doors.” 

 

Pidge ran to start moving things in front of the doors, and then cursed her own stupidity. The doors were set that, when locked, they would only open for a Galra, all she had to do was reverse that and then lock the doors. She remotely locked every door in the ship, so that hopefully all the Galra left were stuck separately, and couldn’t mount any kind of defense.

 

She sunk down to the floor, exhausted. Completely disbelieving. There was no way that they had just escaped from a Galran arena. And it had been so quickly. It couldn’t be even ten minutes since their match had ended.

 

After a few minutes of catching her breath, she remembered the ransom trade. She looked it up, glad that she had as much previous experience working Galra computers as she did, and also glad that the ship had had enough half breeds to have a less race-restricted system. But she could not find the transmission in the logs. The video taken of them had been sent somewhere else. That meant that someone else was involved, someone who would know that it was them that took off with the ship. They needed to ditch it as quickly as possible and get a new one.

  
__________________________________________________________  
  
  


It was nearly an hour, and several rejected strategies of trading the ship, that Pidge realised that she did not actually have to get a new ship. Her mind had been flurried and on edge all day. She wondered if Marou had put something in her food too. She turned on the communications desk and sent out a message to the castle. It was picked up almost immediately, and she opened it.

 

“What is it you want--” Allura started angrily, but cut herself off immediately.

 

“We’ve escaped! Mostly. We need you guys to pick us up. I’ll send the coordinates.”

 

Allura nodded. Moments later Lance and Hunk burst into the room, followed closely by Shiro.

 

“Pidge!”

 

“Are you alright?”

 

Pidge grinned back. “I’m fine. Thanks guys. Just need a pick up.”

 

“Where’s Keith?”

 

“He’s… driving. You can see him in a minute.”

 

“Are those your other teammates? They don’t look—“ Pidge slammed her hand down on the bird-alien’s beak. 

 

“Shut up,” she hissed, but not quietly enough. 

 

“Pidge, what happened? Is something wrong?” Shiro said, with no small degree of authority. 

 

“We’re fine, just… we have some talking to do. In person. Come quickly, alright?”

 

Shiro nodded. Pidge cut off the transmission. 

 

Keith hadn’t reacted to anything since he had sat down in the pilot’s chair. She stood in front of him. He stared beyond her. His eyes were slitted, and glowing faintly. Ever since he had come back from wherever they had taken him to heal him, he had looked a bit different. His hair, previously black, was now a dark purple, and he had grown what looked like a goatee. Whatever Galra he had in him, they had stimulated it, and Pidge was scared of what that might mean. 

 

“Keith. Are you with me? I need you to stay here.”

 

Keith didn’t react much. His eyes shifted to look at her, but other than that he didn’t move. Pidge slowly leaned in and hugged him. Keith shook, and then hugged her back tightly. He kept shaking, and Pidge felt her shoulder dampen. 

 

“I killed them. I didn’t even think about it.” He was outright sobbing now. 

 

Pidge was hit by a strong relief. He didn’t just callously kill them. He still knew what it meant. Even if he didn’t know in the moment. But she was also very thoroughly confused. She had never seen Keith cry before. Not even in the slightest. But now he was holding onto her and sobbing his eyes out. 

 

“I’ve been acting so instinctually, emotionally. And I don’t like it!”

 

Pidge hugged him tight. Unsure of what to say. 

 

After a bit he calmed down, and so did Pidge. 

 

“I remember!” She suddenly burst out. 

 

“What?”

 

“It’s me too, Keith. I can’t think quite straight, and I’ve been all emotional. But I remember why! It’s Marou. He told me he put something in the food to make us emotional, because he wanted to see how it would affect us. It’s alright then, it’ll pass.”

 

“It’s not alright, though! I just killed two people!”

 

“Yes. And we’re going to do something about it. But for now, do you remember that everyone is coming here to pick us up?”

 

“Who everyone?”

 

“Voltron.”

 

“Oh, no I didn’t remember.”

 

“That’s fine, you know now. Have you seen a mirror recently?”

 

“What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“A good bit, actually. Give me a minute.”

 

Pidge turned on the camera for transmissions, and then routed it into the main viewing screen in the bridge, so Keith could see his own face. 

 

“What happened?” His voice had a lot less shock than she had been expecting. 

 

“Marou told you that you were at least a part Galra, but he didn’t tell you that he was trying to draw that part out. This is the result of that.”

 

“Am I going to change any more?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“I have a beard.” His face turned into a mask of stark disbelief. “We’ve been gone for what, three days? Four? No one’s going to believe I could grow a beard in that time.”

 

“If you’re worried about hiding the fact that you look different. Don’t. It’s impossible.” The bird-alien said, darting a glance at Pidge to be sure her beak wouldn’t be abruptly grabbed again. 

 

“It’s more of a goatee anyway,” Pidge said. 

  
_________________________________________________-  
  
  


Lance held onto the scaultrite cookies, bracing for impact. The laser came through, and he was almost shaken out of place by the feeling of going through the wormhole. Then it was over. He ran out and raced toward the door. 

 

When he got to them, Hunk already had Pidge scooped up in his arms, so Lance crashed into Keith. Keith hugged him back. 

 

“Hey, Pidge, What happened to Keith, he’s hugging me?!” He pulled back to arms length. “Oh! What did happen?”

 

Keith stepped back, a hurt, almost scared look on his face. Lance suddenly hated that look, and pulled Keith back into a hug. 

 

“Not that I’m complaining or anything. You look totally cool, dude.”

 

Hunk set Pidge down, and while he looked at Keith a bit oddly for a moment, as soon as Lance had released him he smothered him in a giant hug. Lance gave Pidge a hug too. 

 

“I missed you guys. We were all really worried.”

 

Pidge hugged him right back. “We’re all right. We made it.”

 

Shiro and Allura were also waiting for hugs, and then Hunk insisted on a group hug, just for good measure. 

 

“Before we do anything else,” Keith said, speaking up for the first time. “There are other people in this ship, and we need to figure out what to do with them.”

 

“And then we’ll need a full debrief,” Shiro said, nodding. 

 

Pidge unbarricaded the doors, and as soon as they were open, she heard a very familiar voice. “Ah, I assume that the rest of you are also part of Voltron. Please take me into your custody.”

 

“Marou?!” Keith seemed even less happy to hear him than she was.

 

“You know him?” Shiro asked.

 

“He was our ‘handler’.” Pidge said, emphasising the word with air quotes.

 

“Why do you want to be taken into our custody then?” Allura asked. “Surely you understand that we do not have good will towards you.”

 

“That is true.” Marou said. “But if I make it back to the Galra having lost these two, I will surely die slowly and painfully. Besides, if I am in the custody of so many humans, I can observe more.”

 

Shiro looked at Pidge and Keith. 

 

Pidge shrugged. “If he’s in a cell, I don’t see what harm he could do.”

 

Keith frowned. “I don’t want to hand over anyone to get killed. But I don’t like it.”

 

“Who else is on this ship, Marou?” Pidge asked.

 

“Normal personnel, and a few more experiments. There could be a few people from the arena who wandered on as well.” He gave a pointed look at the bird-alien.

 

“Wait, the arena!?” Lance burst out.

 

Shiro froze. Keith walked up to Shiro and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’re fine. You’re fine. We’ll discuss it in the debrief.” Shiro swallowed hard, and then nodded.

 

Hunk and Lance volunteered to find out who all was in the ship, and then brought back all the prisoners. Coran, Aduc, and Senir helped to get them settled for a temporary stay, as well as cycling some of them through the pods.

 

“Marou, how long will whatever you gave us last?” Pidge asked.

 

“Until midday tomorrow I would guess.”

 

“And how long until what you did to Keith wears off?”

 

“I would have to research more to be sure, but I believe that I have started a chain reaction, and it will continue to whatever extent it wants to. In fact, I propose that he will appear significantly more Galran outwardly, and also experience some inward changes before the whole thing is run through.”

 

Pidge kept her face perfectly neutral, except for biting her lip. “And how can it be reversed?”

 

“It’s not a surety that it can. I have a theory, but I would want something in trade for it.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“I don’t know yet. At any rate, I’d like to see it run its course first.”

 

Pidge was too irritated to keep talking to him. She shut the door and locked it. Shiro was right behind her, and folded her into a tight hug. “I’m proud of you, Katie.”

 

Pidge hugged him back. For a moment she was unsure of what to say. “I love you too, Shiro.”

 

“Ready for debrief?” He asked, after a minute.

 

Pidge nodded.

  
  
  


 


	2. Fluff Time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there might be a bit of OOC ness in this chapter, but it's for the sake of Fluff, and that makes everything alright. Right?

Everyone had gathered in the lounge, and Hunk was passing out some cookies he had made. Finally, after everyone had settled into their seats, Keith began.

 

“We went out to help the ship sending off the distress signal. In order to get some people out of the bridge, I sliced into a container of sleeping gas, or liquid. We passed out, and woke up in a Galra ship. To my knowledge they did not get any important information about Voltron from either of us.” He looked at Pidge to confirm, and she nodded.

 

“Then we were put together in a room. Marou, who you’ve seen, was put in charge of us, and we had conversations with him to find out where we were and what was happening. In return, he wanted information about humans. He seemed to be a mad scientist. We were put into the arena, and fought three battles. We did not kill anyone in these battles, and we didn’t get any lasting injuries either. Marou fed us some kind of drug that we were unaware of, and after one battle, I was put into what I assumed to be a healing pod. Between those two things, as well as this,” he motioned at the band on his neck. “Which injects quintessence into my bloodstream, I have changed, outwardly at least. Marou claims that it is because I am ‘at least 35% Galra’.” Keith paused for a moment, but he didn’t look up to see everyone’s reactions.

 

“Pidge put together a plan to get us onto the ship we came in. She dealt with getting us onto the ship, and getting it ready to fly. There were two Galra in the bridge when we reached it, and I killed them.”

 

Pidge, sick of hearing this delivered in such a detached way, in a way that seemed to implicate Keith himself more than anything else, interrupted. “You were still under influence and you know it!”

 

Pidge started from the beginning, telling the story in a more detailed, and, she felt, more fair fashion. She was sitting next to Hunk, leaning on his side, but by the time she had finished she had been all but pulled into his lap. Next to Keith, Shiro had a firm arm around his shoulders, and didn’t let go, even when Pidge made it clear that Keith almost assuredly had a Galra parent. She could tell that he kept expecting Shiro to let go, mostly because he kept glancing at him whenever she mentioned something about the Galra, or about Keith’s advancing symptoms. 

 

Then there were questions. Mostly it was Allura asking, trying to discern where it was that they had been held, and by whom.

 

Coran spoke up. “You know, if we wanted to be absolutely sure, I could run a blood test on Keith, see how much he’s likely to change and why, and if there’s any way of reversing it.”

 

All eyes turned to Keith. He shrugged. 

 

“You don’t have to, bud,” Shiro said.

 

Keith shook his head. “ I don’t like admitting that it’s possible, but since it is, we probably should get it tested and figure out what we’re going to do about it.”

 

“I’ll start on it this evening,” Coran said.

 

“Well, should we… involve Marou? Since he did this in the first place I mean.” Hunk said.

 

Pidge crossed her arms. “I don’t like the idea of giving him any more information. At least, not until we know that it won’t get back to the Galra.”

 

Keith agreed with her. 

 

“For the moment then,” Lance suggested. “What if we give Coran the blood sample, and then we all take a short holiday?”

 

“I can’t, at least.” Allura said. “We’re a long way from Elis, and need to get back to make sure that nothing happens. We can’t wormhole for a while, so I’ll be at the helm.”

 

“Oh.” Lance deflated. “Well, even if it’s only us paladins, we’ve had a rough few days, and I think that we need a break.”

 

“I agree,” Allura said, rather forcefully. “We don’t know what we might get back to, so you’ll need to be well-rested and ready for it.”

 

“Ok, then! Let me and Hunk plan while you guys go get Keith’s blood drawn, and then meet back in here in an hour or so?”

 

There was a general agreement, and Pidge had to get down out of Hunk’s lap. Instead of going with Keith, however, she went to take a very long shower. Keith came into the bathroom as she was leaving, looking rather pale.

 

“You all right?”

 

He nodded, not quite looking at her.

 

She went back to her room, glad to be able to. It was perfectly messy. She didn’t exactly like things messy, just that she liked things, and she disliked putting them away properly. And the mess never really bothered her. She could make her way around, and find everything she wanted, and that was enough.

 

She grabbed her laptop and went back to the lounge. It hadn’t been an hour yet, but Lance let her sit in the couch while he was still setting things up. He had found lots of blankets from somewhere, and was spreading them out everywhere. Once he was satisfied, he left the room, and came back with several bowls and bottles and a bucket of steaming water. 

 

“So what are you planning on?” Pidge asked. 

 

“Well, there are some things that I’m good at that no one else is. Things proven to cause intense relaxation and increased beauty. Things—“

 

“Like what?” Pidge interrupted. 

 

“Well, I’ve got enough to give everyone a facial, and footbaths, and there’s a foot massage I learned a while back. And!” Lance held up a finger. “I even promise not to tickle anyone this time.” He started laying out the bowls and mixing things. “Hunk is making us some junk food, and I’ve got a movie planned.”

 

“A movie?”

 

“Yeah. I think I may have figured one out.”

 

“How?”

 

Lance grinned at her. “Secret.” His put his danger over his mouth in a flirtatious manner, daring Pidge to push the question. 

 

She didn’t. 

 

Shiro came in and sat on the couch next to her. She tipped over to lean on his side. 

 

“How’d it go with the planet shield while I was away?” She asked. 

 

“Hunk finished up the most complicated of the bits that were left, and when we left to come get you guys, he sent the incomplete instructions to the Elim. So it’s at least being worked on.”

 

Pidge hummed. It was good, considering the circumstances. “Do you think that it will work? That we can move on?”

 

“I don’t know yet. Let’s save that, though, enjoy this relaxing evening that Lance has clearly been planning for the last month or more.”

 

Pidge chuckled. He really must have, with how quickly and easily things were coming together. Hunk had come in twice now, not saying anything, but delivering a covered dish to Lance. 

 

She was honestly surprised. She knew that Hunk definitely would do complicated, time consuming things to make them happy, but that’s just cause he was Hunk. She had had no idea that Lance was anywhere near that kind of person. 

 

Soon after, Keith came in, his hair still damp from the shower, and sticking up oddly. He sat down on the ground next to the couch, covering his legs with one of the blankets. 

 

“Keith,” she started, reaching forward. “Your hair is a wreck, what’d you do to it?” She patted down some of the stick-uppy bits. It really was quite a bit thicker than it had ever looked before, and a deal softer as well, though damp. 

 

Keith craned his head up to look at her, with a startled jerk. “W— so what?”

 

Pidge shrugged. “Do you happen to have a hairbrush, Lance?”

 

He tossed her one, and then yelled toward the kitchen, “Five minute warning, Hunk!” Thereby confirming that he had had this planned out for a while. 

 

Pidge brushed Keith’s hair. She actually liked brushing hair; it was such a slow, soft, monotonous thing. But there was never any reason to, not since they found Voltron. She was more surprised, though, that he let her. She had been shocked enough that he let her smooth down the rough parts, but that he sat still and let her brush his hair, now that was unheard of. 

 

A moment later she felt a warm hand on the back of her head, and she looked back at Shiro. He was softly smiling. She was glad. She had known for a while that he, as well as the rest of them, dearly needed a break. She would have to thank Lance later. 

 

Hunk came in, and so did Lance, carrying between them a table loaded with food. They brought it right down onto the blankets, and set it in the middle. Hunk was immediately swamped with with a million variants of ‘what is this?’ to his apparent great pleasure. 

 

Once everyone had filled a bowl with food and sat back on the couch or the floor, Lance started the movie. It was The Princess Bride, except that, with the castle’s projectors, it was 3D. There were a few bits that weren’t perfect, like they were playing off of a scratched dvd, but all in all, Pidge was impressed. Very impressed. Lance was beaming, very proud of himself, and he made up bowls of steaming water and good smells for them all to put their feet in. 

 

Then the movie was over. Lance cleared out the bowls, and handed around towels to dry their feet with. 

 

“So, I only had one movie, but I’ll give a foot massage to anyone who wants one, and Hunk has offered to start if we want to tell ghost stories, or—“

 

Shiro actually interrupted, which was almost a never for him. “I don’t want anyone near my feet.”

 

Lance shifted gears just as quickly, sending him an evil grin. “Why? Are they ticklish?”

 

Pidge know the answer to that. After all, Matt had been Shiro’s friend for a very long time, and roommate for part of it, and he always shared good blackmail. 

 

Lance, despite his promise, wiggled his fingers deviously. 

 

Shiro stood up, a stern look on his face, and took a step towards Lance. Pidge, from her seat, could see what Lance could not, mainly, the pillow held behind Shiro’s back. He took another step forward, and the smile on Lance’s face slipped just as Shiro’s face gained one, and the pillow slammed into the side of his head. Lance went down easily, but just as easily jumped up, laughing. 

 

“You think it’s so easy to challenge me? I’ve been pillow fighting for years!”

 

“Wait!” Hunk said, very solemnly. Everyone turned to him. “We have to move the food table first, and then I’m gonna cream you all!”

 

The table was moved, and a free for all fight ensued. Shiro won that, and then they decided to have another, but with teams. It was Shiro and Pidge against Lance, Hunk, and Keith. Shiro and Hunk immediately went at one another, an almost perfect match, in terms of ability. Lance tried to help Hunk, and Pidge was just aiming at Lance, when she was caught around the waist. Before she knew what was happening, she was pinned to a couch, and being tickled mercilessly. 

 

“Let me go!”

 

Keith laughed. “Not unless our team wins.”

 

“Shiro! Shiro, help!” Pidge screamed. 

 

“I’m coming!” He yelled back, in a perfectly heroic tone of voice. 

 

“No, you’re not!” Lance managed to shove Shiro down, and Hunk tried to keep him down. 

 

By now, though, the tickling was too much for Pidge to handle. She thrashed around, laughing and screeching, and managed to roll off the couch, but Keith caught her before she could crawl away. 

 

“Shiro! Help!”

 

Lance seized his opportunity, and while Hunk held him down, attacked Shiro’s feet. Soon, Shiro had surrendered, but not without some choice peals of laughter and almost kicking Lance in the nose. 

 

Pidge punched his shoulder. “Oh, so if I’m getting tickled it’s ok to keep fighting, but the minute you get tickled you call it quits?”

 

Shiro shoved her back. “I didn’t see you coming to save me.”

 

Pidge stood up, her face a perfect parody of offense. “Well then I’m staying with Hunk.” She sat down in his lap. “He’d never hurt me like this.”

 

Lance got up also, sitting on top of Keith. “Yeah, for shame, Shiro, giving up so easily. And then hitting a girl?” He clicked his tongue, ignoring Keith’s attempts to shove him over. 

 

Finally, Keith got some leverage, and rolled on top of Lance, grabbing at his sides. 

 

“Ha! I’m immune! You’ve picked the wrong one cowboy—“ Keith must have found the right spot, and dug into it, because soon Lance was laughing as uproariously as Pidge had been. 

 

Pidge was surprised. Keith had never been this… into anything that they had done. Other than training maybe. But maybe it was just because this was a type of warfare, and suited Keith well. 

 

After a minute, Lance surrendered. Everyone sat back, winded, but happy. 

 

Suddenly, there came a small voice from the door. “Is everything, quite alright?” Aduc was there, along with several of the aliens they had brought with them. 

 

“Yeah, sorry, were we being too loud?” Hunk said.  

 

Aduc shrugged. “Just, checking.”

 

“We’re all fine. Thank you for checking on us, Aduc,” Shiro said, back in his grown-up voice. “We’ll quiet down now.”

 

“Oh. Well, you don’t have to, but, thanks.”

 

They left, still looking over their shoulders, curious and worried. 

 

Pidge chuckled. “Poor guys. I think we scared them.”

 

“Well, it’s about time for bed anyway,” Shiro said. “Should we sleep here or go back to our rooms?”

 

Everyone agreed to stay there. The lights were dimmed, and everyone made a pile in the middle of the blankets, and laid on top of them and each other. Soon, they were all asleep. 

  
_______________________________________________________  
  
  


Pidge woke up to Allura clapping. “Come on, Paladins, wake up! I’m very glad to see that you’ve turned your free time into a bonding experience, but now it is time to get up.”

 

Pidge sat up a bit. Her head had been on Shiro’s stomach, and Lance was just getting off of her legs. Hunk and Keith had slipped down the other side of the pile, and Keith was stretched out on top of Hunk. As soon as he was aware of that fact, however, he jerked back and tried to get up, but tripped and fell. 

 

Allura smiled at them all. “Let’s get up and around, we have a lot of discussion to do today.” Then she walked out of the room. Her perfect, put together, self. So early in the morning. Pidge stuck her tongue out for half a second. 

 

Everyone got up. Coran appeared to help Lance put away the blankets, and Shiro put away the pillows. Hunk went to make breakfast, and Pidge and Keith went for the first turn in the showers. 

 

Once they were all dressed, and had eaten, Coran took them to a more private room, where they wouldn’t be over heard. 

 

“Well, as some of you know, I took a blood sample from Keith last night, as well as doing several scans, in order to find out more about his physical changes.”

 

They all nodded. 

 

“I’ve found that he is fifty percent human, forty percent Galra, three percent Altean, and trace amounts of other races. To my knowledge, as well as what he has told me, his father was entirely human, and his mother is mostly Galra.”

 

“Did you say that he’s part Altean as well?” Allura asked. 

 

“Three percent, yes. Now, from what I’ve tested, and what I’ve learned, I would assume that when he was very young, perhaps not even born yet, he brushed up against a strong, Altean quintessence. Because of this, his limited Altean genes kept him looking fully human. And being put into our Altean pods certainly influenced things as well. But when he was put into the Galra pod, which works differently, I had to ask Marou about it, it stimulated his Galran genes, which had had little to cause them to show before. I think that it’s likely, unless we do something drastic, that he will keep changing, and end up looking rather more like a Galra.”

 

“What kind of drastic?” Keith asked. 

 

“Well, it’s possible, if either I or Allura is compatible with you, to transfer blood to your body. This might keep you looking significantly more human, although it could possibly even make you look a bit Altean.”

 

“That sounds too drastic,” Shiro said firmly. “As much of a shock as it is, his Galra blood is a part of him, and I think that we all should accept it.”

 

“Will there be any bad side effects?” Hunk asked. 

 

“He’ll probably be more moody for a while, he might have growing pains, or odd cravings. His voice might change again.”

 

“So he’s like going through Galra puberty?” Lance asked, his voice dangerously close to a laugh. 

 

“It’s quite possible that it will be similar to that!” Coran said, as if the idea hadn’t come to him before. “I’ll have to research more about that.”

 

“Is there anything we should be doing to help him?” Pidge asked. 

 

Coran was already scrolling through his tablet. “Here! Since we used to have many Galra here in the castle, I do have records of this. I’ll send it to you all. Read it, and see if it helps you.”

 

“What do you think, Keith?” Shiro asked. 

 

“I think, I don’t wanna be Galra.”

 

“You want to try the blood transfer?” Allura asked. 

 

“No. Just… I think I just need time.”

 

“Alright. We’ll give you time.” Shiro said. “You can decide later what you want to do about it.”

 

Keith nodded. He got up and headed off to his room. 

 

“Actually, there was one more thing I wanted to talk about. Will one of you fill Keith in later?” Allura said. 

 

Pidge raised her hand. 

 

“Thank you, Pidge. I’ve sent a message to Elis, asking how it’s going. The shield is up. There doesn’t appear to be any immediate threat of attack. We don’t have to go back right away. Also, I’ve picked up a distress signal here. Apparently there is a small resistance faction that has sprung up on a planet near us, but they have been nearly extinguished. They need our help. I haven’t responded yet, because I wanted to know what you all thought.”

 

Nearly everyone shrugged. 

 

“We’ll do it,” Shiro said. 

 

“Good. I’ll head there. We’ll meet with the leaders tonight.”

  
_____________________________________________________________  
  
  


“Hey, Hunk,” Lance said, looking down at the tablet. 

 

“Hmm?”

 

“This thing said that Galra have this pack bond thing, wanna help me try it out on Keith?”

 

“What?”

 

“Yeah. Apparently it ‘strengthens familial bonds and provides comfort and relaxation’.”

 

“Well what is it? It’ll certainly depend on that.”

 

“Best I can tell, you gotta tap you chin on his head.”

 

“What, like this?” Hunk slumped on top of Lance, weighing him down, and then dipped his head so his chin dug into Lance’s skull. 

 

“Get off. If you be that annoying about it we won’t see Keith for the rest of the week.”

 

“Who? Me? Annoying? Never.”

 

“Get off.” Lance reached back, aiming to tickle Hunk, but he stepped away. 

 

“Well, I don’t mind. But I’m not just gonna smother Keith out of the blue. Ask him if he minds.”

 

“But it’s no fun if he sees it coming!”

 

“What? What are you hoping for?”

 

Lance turned around the tablet so Hunk could see. Hunk rolled his eyes. “Even if I did, Keith would never do that.”

 

“What if I could convince Pidge to help too? Come in from underneath and hit him with a double whammy.”

 

“I don’t know,” Hunk turned back to his cleaning. “I still don’t think it’ll work.”

 

“But you’ll help?”

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

\-----------------------

 

“Keith! Come here a minute!” 

 

“What?”

 

“I wanna try something, but first, since  _ some people  _ are such sticklers,” Lance looked pointedly at Hunk. “Do you mind a hug right now?”

 

Keith’s face wrinkled into a confused frown. “I guess not. Why?”

 

“Because Hunk is going to give you one.”

 

Just as Lance had asked him to, Hunk stepped up behind Keith and pulled him into a hug, resting his chin lightly on the top of his head. Keith’s entire body stiffened, and he shot a glare at Lance. 

 

“I think I know what you’re doing, and it’s working, but I’m not going to--”

 

“Pidge, now!”

 

Pidge hugged Keith from the front, making sure that her hair brushed his chin. 

 

Keith got even stiffer. “I’m not going to.”

 

“Oh, come on, what’s the harm?” Lance said, as carefreely as he could.

 

“Because you’ll never shut up.”

 

“I won’t bring it up for a solid week.”

 

“Nope.”

 

“I will speak nothing of it for two solid weeks. Won’t even join in conversations about it.”

 

“No.”

 

“If you don’t I’ll surprise you into it in front of Shiro.”

 

“Hey,” Hunk said tentatively. “If you really don’t like it I’ll let go.”

 

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance, but he didn’t respond to Hunk, so he didn’t let go.

 

“You seem pretty confident you can. Have you even done it before?”

 

“I’ve gotten close enough. With… recent changes, I’ll certainly do it as soon as I let go.”

 

“Prove it.”

 

“Fine. But you can’t mention a thing. Especially not to Shiro.” Keith took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. He relaxed back against Hunk and wrapped his arms around Pidge, letting his chin fall to the top of her head and closing his eyes. A moment later they could hear a soft rumbling.

 

“I can even feel it,” Hunk said, amazed.

 

“Why don’t you want Shiro to know?” Pidge asked.

 

“Cause it’s embarrassing.” Keith murmured into Pidge’s hair, his face turning red. “And Shiro’s not always a perfect paragon of virtue. He’d be worse than Lance if he knew.”

 

“Knew what?” Shiro asked, walking into the room.

 

“Keith can purr!” Lance burst out, entirely unable to hold it in.

 

Keith broke free from Hunk and Pidge. “I swear, Lance, I will murder you!” 

 

Lance ran immediately, but it wasn’t long before they heard a thump indicating that he had been caught.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the third thing I've posted tonight, just cause I've been putting off posting anything for a long while, and it's also the last thing I had ready, so it might be a bit before I post again.


	3. New Characters!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, here we get Matt. Yay! Don't hate me for what I do to him, it's all offscreen anyway. Also, some new characters. Original, but hopefully not any less interesting.

They had all gathered in the bridge. Allura had been talking to the person for a while now, but once they had all come he turned and introduced himself. 

 

“My name in Sonzae. I’m a part of the resistance in Qhetol. Our leader is not able to meet with you at the moment, so I am representing the resistance. It appears that our situation is more… delicate, than any you’ve dealt with before.”

 

“In what way?” Shiro asked.

 

“Primarily, it’s that we don’t want you to take over the planet. It’s too close to the center of power in the empire, and it is too important to Zarkon. If the whole planet was freed, it would soon be back under his power, possibly even destroyed.”

 

“Then what is it you want us to do?” Keith asked.

 

“We want you to come to some of our bases, and reassure our people that Voltron is real, and on our side.”

 

“So just a publicity run?” Lance said.

 

“Not just that, we also want you to help us get free some of our people that have been captured.”

 

“We can do that,” Shiro said. “Is there anything else you need?”

 

“There are other planets, we can get you in touch with them, and they need the same or similar help.”

 

Shiro nodded.

 

___________________________________________

  
  


Pidge followed Sonzae as quietly as she could, holding her bayard ready. She had really, really disliked the idea of giving a speech, so she was helping to break out the resistance members instead. The prison was right in front of them now. Pidge sat behind a sheltering wall and pulled out her tablet. Even from here, the signal that tied together all the robot guards was accessible. She couldn’t take control of them, not without causing too much of a commotion, but she could jump from them to the computers. Soon, she had a map of the prison, complete with the positions of every robot guard. She showed Sonzae, and he nodded. 

 

“They’ll be in here,” he said. 

 

“How many?” Pidge asked.

 

“Five.”

 

“Only five? What about other people in the prison?”

 

“If I recognize them, we’ll break them out, otherwise, we’ll leave them.”

 

“Ok. So, if we’re getting to here, the best way will be around through the back. I’ll disable the alarms, and fix the cameras on a loop, and… ready.”

 

“Let’s go.”

 

Sonzae grabbed at her hand and they ran to the back of the building. He was easily able to scale the wall, but Pidge had to launch her bayard like a grappling hook and pull herself up. Down in the yard, there were only the robot sentries, which, being rather dumb, did not look up and see them on top of the wall. Pidge pulled her laptop out and sent out a small virus. It would freeze up the robots for about a minute, and then disappear without a trace. 

 

Sonzae jumped down, sliced off the nearest sentry’s hand, and used it to open the door. They went down the stairs, and into the basement, where Sonzae had said that the prisoners would be held. At the end of the corridor, disappearing behind a door, Pidge caught sight of a dark colored robe. She grabbed Sonzae and pulled him back behind the stairs, out of sight.

 

“That was a druid! You didn’t tell us that there would be druids!” She hissed, careful to keep her voice down.

 

“I didn’t know about it either!”

 

Pidge turned on the tablet, and looked at the cameras and sensors more closely. “He’s the only one. There aren’t any cameras in that room, though, so I don’t know what’s happening.”

 

Just then, they heard a muffled, but not any less bloodcurdling scream come from the room. They both winced.

 

“Can we take on a druid together?” Pidge asked.

 

“Even if we could, he’d surely call for backup, and we couldn’t deal with that.”

 

“We can’t just leave that person to get tortured!”

 

“It would be better to get them out afterward, than to get ourselves captured and save no one.”

 

“I don’t like it.”

 

“Neither do I. Especially since it’s most likely one of the resistance members in there.”

 

There was another scream. 

 

Pidge looked at Sonzae, her eyes blazing, ready to tear into him for stopping her, except, it wasn’t him stopping her. He was right, if they went in now they would get captured. She might be able to take on a druid, but she couldn’t take on Haggar if the druid called for help. 

 

Another scream.

 

Her inability to do anything grated on her. She couldn’t stand to hide here much longer, logic or no logic. She put her hands over her ears, not that it did much good.

 

“Can’t we at least get the others out now?” She asked.

 

“No. The druid will have to come back along this way, and if we get them out we’ll all be seen. We might well be seen already. We should find a better hiding spot.”

 

Pidge looked at her map. “There’s a janitor’s closet over there, but that’ll only work as long as there’s no janitor coming.”

 

“They wouldn’t clean in the middle of the day. Let’s go.”

 

They moved to the closet. It was mostly bare. Either the Galra didn’t do much cleaning, or the closet really needed restocking. Pidge sat in the back, trying not to hear the screams which were more frequent now. Sonzae stood by the door, alert and tense.

 

Pidge tracked the sentries on her tablet, if only to have something to distract her. None of them were coming down the stairs. She wondered why. There were no sentries in the basement, and it didn’t seem like any would be coming down either. 

 

They hid for nearly half an hour, not daring to get out, or to contact the rest of the resistance. Finally,  they could hear the door at the end of the hall open and shut. They couldn’t hear footsteps, but there was a faint scraping as the druid went up the stairs. They stayed put, just in case anyone would come down just after the druid went up. There were footsteps, rushed, frantic, running down the stairs. Suddenly the closet door was flung open, and a female Galra burst in.

 

Sonzae immediately grabbed her hand, and put his other hand over her mouth. She was caught completely by surprise. Her face morphed from confusion into something surpassing anger, and threat emanated from her. She tried to hit Sonzae with her free hand, but Pidge zapped her with her bayard. Sonzae was affected for a moment, but he let go very quickly, and avoided most of the electricity. 

 

Pidge heard a rustle from behind her, and a panel in the wall slid back slightly. She spun around, opening the panel, holding her bayard ready. There was a small space, not even large enough for her to stand up in, and inside it was a Galra child. 

 

Sonzae cursed. “We don’t need this complexity.”

 

“What are we going to do?”

 

“We can’t give up the rescue, not now. We’ll take them with us, and figure out what to do later.”

 

Pidge nodded. She went out into the hallway with the severed sentry hand and unlocked the doors. Inside, there were several different kinds of aliens, but many looked to be the same as Sonzae. He went behind her, unlocking shackles of the people he knew, and leaving the others. 

 

Finally she got to the final door. But before she could open it, Sonzae gripped her wrist tightly.

 

“Don’t. You shouldn’t see it. I’ll bring him out, you lead the way.”

 

Pidge nodded grimly. She led the others to the stairs, instructing the stronger-looking of them to carry the Galra girl and the child. She sent a hologram of herself to run out the front door and around the yard, then she took the prisoners out the back door, opening the gate and getting them all out. Sonzae was last, carrying a body over his shoulders. 

 

Pidge barely was able to keep her mind on track; the body looked human.

 

________________________________________

  
  


They got safely back to the resistance base. There were twelve prisoners that they broke out, plus the human-looking one, and the two Galra. Sonzae didn’t let her have a closer look, taking the person straight to a different base, one with a better healer. Pidge was left in charge of the people that were left. 

 

She helped them to find their divisions and bases where they belonged, and to get them on their way. She was left with a man and his wife, who lived in the base, and the two Galra. The woman was still unconscious, and had been tied up, all her weapons and communication devices taken from her. The little boy was sticking close to her, but quiet, so he had been left mostly free. 

 

Pidge sat down heavily on the stool, the decision weighing heavily on her shoulders. What exactly was she supposed to do with two random Galra? They couldn’t let them go back to the prison, or they would know for sure that it was a resistance operation, and it might lead to a lot of trouble for the resistance. One the other hand, Pidge was firmly opposed to killing them to keep them quiet. She had asked all of the other prisoners if it was possible that the resistance would do something, but they all told her that their division would not be taking any prisoners, and likely, if she handed them over, they would be killed. 

 

The Galra woman stirred. “Dak?”

 

The little boy put his hand on her shoulder. 

 

“Oh, you’re ok.” There was such relief in her voice, such… well, humanity, for lack of a better word. She sat up as best as she could, and caught sight of Pidge. Her eyes narrowed, and her face wrinkled into a snarl.

 

Pidge, trying to look cooler and more in charge than she felt, pulled out her bayard. “Don’t do anything.”

 

“Or what?” It was left unsaid, but Pidge knew that she thought she would be dead sooner or later, no matter what happened.

 

“I want to know what this whole thing is about.” Pidge said, ignoring her question. “I’ve never seen a Galra baby, much less one hiding in the back of a closet.”

 

The woman’s eyes narrowed even more. Dak, the child, stepped into her lap and bumped his head up against her chin. “Not now, kit, sit still.” The woman waited until he had sat down, and then looked up at Pidge, the malice in her eyes giving way to a tentative kind of hope.

 

“If I cooperate, will you make sure that he stays alive?”

 

Pidge had known that she was fighting in a war. She knew that people fought with their lives on the line. But this bid for the life of a child, made to her, as if she would be the kind of person to kill a child. It hurt, in a different way than anything else had ever hurt her. And she couldn’t let it show. She had to stay stoic. Had to act as if she was a normal part of the resistance here. 

 

She looked down and away, trying to hide her expression beneath her hair. “Yeah. He won’t die if I have anything to say about it.”

 

“My mother is Galra. My father was not. She didn’t want a child with diluted blood, and she sent away my father with me. I lived with him here for several rotations, he died in a battle three rotations ago. I wasn’t registered properly, and for some reason… When I had Dak, almost two rotations ago, I couldn’t register him at all. Not that I wanted to. So I’ve kept him hidden. That’s why he was behind the closet wall.”

 

“Why didn’t you want to register him?”

 

“He’s three quarters Galra, he’d have to go away to be trained into a soldier. I would have to give him up, very soon at this point. Besides that, you can’t just have a child without permission. I was afraid of what might happen if it was found out.”

 

“What about your husband? Is he likely to come after you?”

 

She looked away. “I’m not married. And no, he’s long gone, he won’t be coming.”

 

This was only making the decision harder. Pidge wasn’t supposed to be feeling bad for her, she was supposed to find out… she didn’t know what she had hoped to find. “What’s your name?”

 

“Kolom. I’m seventeen, and I’m a private second class.”

 

“Seventeen?” Pidge couldn’t do this any longer. She couldn’t keep up the mask of indifference. It was supposed to be easier than this! They weren’t supposed to have to be pitted against other teenagers that didn’t want to be there. She stood up abruptly. “I need to make a call.”

 

She left the room, and told the owners of the house not to go into it. She put her helmet on and contacted Shiro.

 

“Pidge! Where’ve you been? We expected you to be back a while ago.”

 

“Yeah, about that. I have a problem.”

 

“What? Are you safe?”

 

“Yes. While freeing the prisoners, we somehow picked up two Galra. It’s a teenage mom and her son, and I-” Her voice broke, but she forged on. “I don’t want to leave them here.”

 

There was silence for a moment. “I’ll be there as quickly as possible.”

 

The channel shifted. “Hey Pidge, Shiro says you have a problem. How’s it gone?”

 

“I’ve had a hard day, Lance. I almost wish I’d  made a speech.”

 

“That bad? What happened?”

 

Pidge talked it all through with Lance, immensely grateful for his staying on the other end of the line and offering commiserating noises at pauses in the story. Shiro arrived twenty minutes later, when she had almost finished telling everything to Lance.

 

“Hey, Pidge.”

 

Pidge ran and hugged him. 

 

“Ok, let’s see these people.”

 

When they went into the room again, Dak was curled up asleep in Kolom’s lap. She stared at Shiro suspiciously for a moment. 

 

“We’re leaving, I’d advise you to come quietly.” Shiro said, his voice low, but not threatening. He reached down to pick up Dak.

 

“No! No, I’ll come quietly, just don’t--let her hold him.”

 

Shiro looked at Pidge. She nodded, and he backed away. Pidge tried to pick up Dak carefully, so he wouldn’t wake up, but it didn’t work. As he saw that he was being taken from his mother he started to cry loudly.

 

“Hush, hush, Dak. Be quiet, ok?” Kolom said quietly. 

 

He stopped crying, but the terrified look didn’t leave his face. Pidge stood up, shifting his weight to rest on her hip. He was a large baby, at least as large as a human four-year-old would be. By contrast, Kolom was only barely taller than Keith, so clearly she hadn’t inherited the tall genes.

 

They went out to the waiting car. Shiro sat in the backseat, next to Kolom, and Pidge rode shotgun with Dak in her lap. To her surprise, Sonzae was driving. 

 

“Where are we headed?” Pidge asked.

 

“I’m taking you back to your ship. I’ve discussed with the leaders, and they’ve said that you may either take these two with you, or leave them to us, whichever you prefer.” Sonzae said.

 

“They’re coming with us,” Shiro said immediately. 

 

The rest of the drive was silent. Sonzae parked in front of the little pod they had come down in.

 

“How is that one person?” Pidge asked.

 

“He’ll make it. And probably without too many scars. We got him to the doctors just in time.”

 

“Good.”

 

“I’ll have him send you an update once he’s up and around. I’ll be in touch occasionally also.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

They got out of the car, and Shiro turned back to shake Sonzae’s hand. “Thank you for keeping her safe.”

 

“No problem, she did more of that than I did. It was an honor working with you.”

 

“Likewise.”

 

They got into the pod, and flew back to the castle. The ride was a long one in the little pod, but it was mostly silent. 

 

______________________________________

  
  


“Pidge!” Hunk picked her up off her feet with a bear hug. “I was worried about you.”

 

“Thanks, Hunk.”

 

“Who are these?” Allura said, a distinct note of distaste in her voice.

 

“Their names are Kolom and Dak. They will be staying with us for the time being.” Shiro said.

 

“Why?” Keith asked.

 

“We’ll discuss that in a bit. For the moment, Coran, can you set up a room with a good lock?”

 

Coran nodded.

 

Pidge followed him with Kolom and Dak. Coran brought them to a room a few hallways away from the paladins bedrooms. Inside it was dark and dusty, but it was still a room. Coran brought extra blankets and pillows, and unlocked the bathroom.

 

“Pidge, if you’ll stay here with them for a few moments, I’ll go get a few more things, and then the room will be ready.”

 

Coran left, closing the door. Pidge was alone with Kolom and Dak. She set Dak down on the floor, and he ran to Kolom, who sat down on the bed.

 

“What is this?” she asked.

 

“We’re going to keep you two here, for the time being at least.” 

 

“For ransom? Or as prisoners?”

 

“I don’t know. My goal is to find the least bad option for you. It’s… none of this is what I’m good at. I’m fifteen, so I don’t know what I’m doing.” Pidge sat down on the floor. “Dak is cute.”

 

Kolom looked at Pidge oddly for a moment, then gave a slight smile. “Yeah, he is. Thank you.”

 

Pidge stared at the ground for a moment, wishing she had her laptop. A solid couple hours immersing herself in tech work, and she’d be all better, not feel so terrible anymore.

 

“Why don’t you hate the Galra?”

 

“What?”

 

“I mean, just about everyone I’ve ever met hates and fears the Galra. But you don’t, for some reason.”

 

“Well, it’s not like I like what the Galra are doing, and it does kind of carry over to my impression of just a random Galra, but, I got to know you as a person, as Kolom, rather than as just ‘a Galra’, so, I guess that’s why. Also, one of my teammates is half Galra, so I know that being Galra doesn’t make you like… bad or anything.”

 

The door opened, and Coran came in with some food. “So the light switch is here, and obviously the bathroom is over there, and here’s some food for you two, and we’ll be off.” He unlocked the handcuffs that were on Kolom, took Pidge and left.

 

She went to her bedroom and pulled out her laptop. Now she could take a break. 

  
  


________________________________________

  
  


They went to three more planets and did the same thing, only these times, Pidge picked to meet up with resistance members and give a speech. Also, they did not have problems on these planets. 

 

In the week that it took them to do this, no one visited Kolom and Dak other than to bring them food. Allura in particular supported this mode of action, as well as Coran and every other alien on the ship. 

 

Pidge had good reason not to visit though. She had been swamped with requests of things to do, more than she could ever get done. Hunk helped out with what he could, but most of the burden fell to her shoulders. Keith started mother-henning her again, and making sure that she didn’t stay up all night, which was annoying. But, at the same time, getting back at him was fun.

 

Then one day, they got a message from Sonzae asking if he and his unit could come visit. He said that the one person that they helped was a part of his unit now, and that he wanted to see them. He was a human, which Pidge was incredibly curious to see. She had thought that he was a human, but she hadn’t seen close enough to be sure.

 

They had all gathered in the hangar, where Sonzae was coming. His ship landed, and he got out, along with three other people, and then, suddenly, Pidge knew that last person.

 

“Matt!” She charged at him.

 

“It is you!” He yelled back, running at her as well.

 

They grabbed tight at one another, and Pidge started crying.

 

“He said that you were humans, and I didn’t know whether to hope or not. How are you here?” Matt said.

 

“I’m a part of Voltron.” Pidge said, slowly and hiccupy, through her crying.

 

“But why? Why did you come out here? It’s dangerous.”

 

“To find you, idiot!”

 

The hug became tighter than one of Hunk’s. “I’m so glad to see you.”

 

“Me too. Do you know where Dad is?”

 

“No. Not anymore.”

 

Suddenly Pidge gasped. “You were the one screaming. I didn’t help you. You were right there and I just listened.”

 

“No. No, that’s not true. You got me out as soon as you could.”

 

“But, I didn’t even recognize you.”

 

“It’d be more odd if you would’ve recognized that screeching as me.”

 

“You were getting hurt!”

 

“Shh. It’s alright. I’m alright now.”

 

Pidge pulled back to look at him. Other than a scar on his cheek, and his hair being longer, he was still the same. She hugged him tight. “I missed you so much.”

 

“I know. I’m sorry.”

 

Pidge didn’t move for several more minutes, then she turned to introduce Matt to everyone else, but only Shiro was still there.

 

Matt grinned. “Looks like life has changed you a lot more than it did me.”

 

Pidge was confused for a moment, then she looked away. “So?”

 

“So? You entirely stole my look!”

 

“Well maybe I liked your look. And you’ve been gone for over a year! Did you not expect anything to change?”

 

Matt ruffled up her hair. He looked over at Shiro, and Shiro took that as his sign to come over and smother them both in a hug.

 

“Thank you, Shiro.” Matt said. “Our family is going to be indebted to you forever.”

 

Shiro shook his head. 

 

“Matt!” Pidge burst out. “You’ve gotta come see all the cool stuff we’ve been doing!”

 

She pulled Matt, and Shiro too, all over the castle. There was so much she wanted to show him, so many things that only he would understand the thought behind. More than that, though, she really wanted to spend time with him. 

 

She was on a natural high for hours, and Matt seemed like he was too. Shiro tired out after a while and left, and other members of Voltron and Matt’s team had both joined and left them before they had tired out. But they did tire out eventually, and fell asleep. They were carried off to bed by loving hands, and slept more soundly than they had in over a year.

 

________________________________________

  
  


Keith swung at the fake gladiator, ducking away when it blocked his strike and swung at his face. He ran in again under its weapon and thrust his sword up through it’s chin.

 

**Level five, completed.**

 

The gladiator vanished. 

 

From the door, someone clapped. Keith spun around, he hadn’t noticed that someone was there. It was just Matt, who smiled at him.

 

“Mind if I join you? I’ve been doing some practicing with the resistance, but I’d love to see how it compares to you guys.”

 

Keith shrugged. “Sure.” He picked up his bottle of water and took a long drink. He hadn’t expected to be bothered in the middle of his training, but he didn’t mind all that much either. He had met Matt a few times on earth. Enough to like him, but not enough to really know him.

 

Matt was sifting through the box of weapons. He pulled out a sword similar to Keith’s, if a little shorter, and with a different grip.

 

“Pidge has told me a lot about you,” he said, shifting the sword from hand to hand and looking down the length of it.

 

“I’ve heard quite a bit about you as well.”

 

Matt nodded thoughtfully. “Ready?”

 

“Yeah.” Keith stepped forward, holding his sword out. 

 

Matt stepped to the side, and Keith stepped to face him again. They circled a few moments before Keith got annoyed, and came forward with a strong slash. Matt countered, but couldn’t retaliate, and stepped back. His face hardened, and he he shifted his grip on his sword. Keith stepped forward again, feigning a cut high on Matt’s left shoulder, then pulling back and stepping in close to him on the right. He kicked at Matt’s knee, and Matt fell, but he scrambled away and stood again.

 

Matt attacked first this time, coming in with five strikes in succession. Not of them connected, but it was enough to put Keith on the defensive. He backed up a step, just enough to get out of the reach of Matt’s sword, then swung close to the handguard. Matt jerked his hands back, making the mistake of looking at them instead of Keith for a second. Keith swung at Matt’s sword, only concerned with bunting it just a little further away from him. He used his other arm to grab Matt’s shoulder, and shove him down. It was easy from that point to press his advantage, to catch Matt’s sword arm with one hand, and hold his sword to his throat with the other.

 

“I give. You win.” Matt said.

 

Keith backed off, offering Matt a hand up. 

 

“Guess I’ve got more to learn, huh?” Matt said, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. “So I guess it’s true that you’re half Galra?”

 

“Yeah, but that doesn’t automatically make me any better at swordwork.”

 

“No, I mean, your face.”

 

“What about it?”

 

“Find a mirror, dude, I’m not gonna explain that.”

 

Keith frowned. He went to the wall and pressed some buttons that would turn the wall panels into mirrors. 

 

His goatee had mostly fallen out when the drugs in his system had run their course, as did much of the yellow in his eyes, but his teeth had come out with small fangs, and his hair had been growing, not longer, but fuller. He looked into the mirror, surprised to see a faint purple streak on his cheek. He rubbed at it, but it showed no signs of leaving. Other than a mild itching, it looked and felt like it had been there forever. He still rubbed at it again, surprised when he saw that there was one on the back of his hand.

 

“Did this show up as we were fighting?” He asked Matt.

 

Matt shrugged. “More or less. I didn’t really notice it till after. It’s pretty faint.”

 

Keith frowned. He wished that, if his body had really decided to make him look more Galra, that it would at least do it all at once. “You wanna go again?”

 

“Sure. Let’s do it without weapons this time, though.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Just cause.”

 

“It’s cause you know you can’t beat me with swords.”

 

“Definitely not!”

 

“Fine, we’ll do it without.” Keith set his sword down against the wall. “Ready?”

 

“As I’ll ever be.”

 

Matt came at him first, swinging a fist at his face. Keith leaned back to avoid the hand, and Matt swung his left hand into Keith’s stomach. Keith curled around his stomach. Matt grabbed him in a headlock, but Keith kicked back at him, and when one of his kicks landed solidly, Matt let go. Keith spun behind him and shoved. Matt, unbalanced from caring for his hurt leg, toppled forward. Keith grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. 

 

“Give up?”

 

“Ha! No. Owww!” 

 

Keith had twisted his arm further. Matt twisted and squirmed for a minute, trying to find a way out, then slumped his head down. “Fine, I give.”

 

Keith got off of him. 

 

“It’s not fair, you know, being better than me at fighting.”

 

“Why?”

 

Matt shrugged. “I’m tired of real fighting. We could still play-fight though.”

 

“Play-fight?”

 

“Oh, right, you’ve never had siblings. Although, I guess not many people even with siblings do it. It’s like fighting, but it’s playing.”

 

“I… don’t think I get it.”

 

“Here, like this,” Matt tackled Keith, taking him to the ground.

 

Keith rolled over on top of Matt. Matt was grinning. “Yeah. Like that.” He pulled up his feet into Keith’s stomach and launched him off, then ran after to tackle him again.

 

Keith grinned. It did kind of make sense, in a weird way. It was harder, this time, to squirm out from under Matt, but he did, and made sure to pin him to the ground shortly after. They play fought for the next half hour, until they were both winded, and Matt had used a move that Keith thought was kind of cheating to hold him down and declare himself the winner.

 

Then they stopped for water, and had to go down to the kitchen to get more, Keith’s bottle being nearly empty. 

 

Hunk raised an eyebrow at the two of them. “What happened to you?”

 

“Play-fighting.” Matt said simply. 

 

Hunk nodded, then he spun around. “Wait, you got Keith to play-fight? Like, without legitimately trying to murder you?”

 

“I wouldn’t do that.” Keith said, grabbing water pouches out of the fridge. 

 

“I haven’t done that since I was… seven or eight I think,” Hunk said, ignoring Keith.

 

“Yeah, it’s been a while for me too,” Matt said.

 

“Why?” Keith asked, handing him a pouch.

 

“It just seemed… childish I guess? And if you aren’t fairly evenly matched you can get pretty hurt, so Mom didn’t like it.”

 

“Then why’d you suggest it?”

 

Matt laughed sheepishly. “It was the only thing I could think of that I could win at.”

 

“Oh?” Hunk said. “Did Keith hand your butt to you a few times first?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Hunk grinned at Keith. “Hey, what’s on your face?”

 

Keith reached up and rubbed at it again. “Dunno. Probably another Galra thing.”

 

“It’s darker now,” Matt commented.

 

Keith frowned. “Has it spread?”

 

“Nah,” Matt said.

 

Keith left. He had to see how much this thing had taken him over.

 

He went into the bathroom and stripped his shirt off, twisting in front of the mirror to see his back. It seemed like it had started on his right shoulder blade. One tendril had come up on his face, and the other snaked along the back of his arm and onto his hand. There was another streak moving towards his left hip, and he could almost see the light streak darken to become the same color as the one on his face. He frowned at his reflection. He would definitely be asking Coran about this.

 

When he got back to the kitchen, nearly everyone was there for the brunch that Hunk was preparing in honor of Matt’s return. Keith tried to look a little less obviously worried. 

 

Pidge was sitting next to Matt, talking a million miles a minute, all about things that Keith had not a clue about. Matt, however, was keeping up easily, and seemed very pleased about whatever it was he and Pidge were discussing.

 

They all ate together, and Keith really did enjoy it.

 

The team, and Matt, of course, spent most of the afternoon together before they split up into smaller groups. 

 

Keith went to train again. He hadn’t gotten to the training deck yet, though, before he heard an odd buzzing noise. He spun around, finally finding its source. There was a console, covered in buttons and Altean, that was used to communicate with the castle. It was making the buzzing noise. He didn’t know where Coran was. Normally he would see Coran doing something or other with the consoles. He went up to it. There was a button glowing green, and blinking. Green wasn’t a bad color. It wasn’t like danger or alarm. Maybe it just wanted pushing and the problem would be solved. Keith, despite the little voice in his head telling him to go find Coran, pushed the button.

 

Immediately there was a sudden outflow of noise from the console, but not just noise, a voice, a female voice, and rather annoyed. It was most certainly not in English, though.

 

“What do you want?” He said to the console, his voice betraying his utter bewilderment.

 

“This isn’t the Altean,” the statement lay just on the other side of a question.

 

“No. Who are you?”

 

“Kolom. Who are you?”

 

“Keith.”

 

“Oh. You’re a different paladin.”

 

“Yeah? And you’re… oh, you’re the Galra girl that Pidge brought back with her. Where are you? I haven’t seen you since then.”

 

Kolom scoffed. “You aren’t even aware of what goes on in the castle? We’ve been locked in this room for a very long time now. At least a week, if I’ve guessed correctly.”

 

“Why?”

 

“You know what, I’d love to talk with you, but I’d much rather not yell through this thing to do it. Come on over.” Her tone of voice was odd. It was something that Keith had heard before, but he wasn’t sure when, or what it meant.

 

“Ok.” He pushed the button again, hoping that it shut off the call. Then he realized that he probably shouldn’t have done that. He hadn’t been a part of taking them to their room, and he had never been asked to deliver the plate of food that Hunk sometimes made. He wondered if it could have been on purpose.

 

He started at his room, and opened every room along the hallway, working his way down the next hallway, and the next, and the next, before finding the correct door. As he walked in, the door automatically shut, and he was trapped in a sudden dimness.

 

His wrist was grabbed and his hand pushed against the pad by the door before he pulled it back. Kolom typed in the code, but the door remained shut. 

 

“Hey! What’d you… you’re the half Galra one, aren’t you?” She laughed bitterly. “Just my luck.”

 

“What just happened?”

 

“You’re locked in, that’s what just happened.”

 

“Yeah, but… what did you even want to talk about?”

 

“Getting out.”

 

“Oh. Ohh. Sorry. I should’ve gotten Coran after all.”

 

“He wouldn’t have let me out, you’re fine.”

 

“Yeah, but--” Keith stopped in surprise when his ankle was grabbed onto by sharp claws. “Ow, buddy.” He pried Dak off his ankle and sat down. “Can we start over? I’m Keith, a paladin of Voltron.”

 

Kolom sat down on the bed. “Sure. I’m Kolom, former private second class in the Galran army. Under Commander Vrar.”

 

“So, if you’re serious about the ‘former’ why have you been cooped up in here the whole time?”

 

“Oh, I don’t know, I think that it would have to be that your Alteans don’t like me. And none of you are paying any attention anymore.”

 

Keith frowned. He didn’t answer for a moment. There were several snappish things he could have said, except, she was right. He didn’t know hardly any of the other aliens on the ship. “Yeah, and I guess the door is locked against any Galra opening it from the inside.”

 

“Hooray, you’ve guessed it.”

 

“You seemed less, I don’t know, sarcastic, the other time I met you.”

 

“And you seemed smarter.”

 

Keith glared at her.

 

“Sorry. Just, being in fear of your life and your kid’s will do a lot to make you nice and amenable.”

 

“Well, we definitely wouldn’t hurt any kids, so, you don’t have to worry anymore.”

 

Dak seemed to take that advice more than his mother, and grabbed onto Keith’s knee with sharp claws. Keith didn’t bother moving him this time.

 

“Yeah, well, Dak likes you, and that means a lot sometimes.”

 

“I know you wanted to leave, but is there something specific you wanted to do?” Keith asked.

 

“Stretch my muscles a bit. Have you got a training room or anything?”

 

“Yeah, I was heading there when the console started buzzing.” Keith rubbed Dak’s head, surprised at just how soft his little baby fur was. Dak leaned towards his hand and let go of his knee. When Keith pulled his hand back, Dak followed into Keith’s lap, and settled down, content as long as Keith rubbed his head.

 

Kolom chuckled. “Really does like you. I’m glad. Never could figure out quite what to do with him.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, I may be his mom, but that doesn’t mean I know what to do all the time. I haven’t figured out yet a calm way to get him to let go once he’s stuck his little stickers in. Not like I had anyone to learn from.”

 

Keith grunted. “So, are we, kinda the same? I mean, I’ve got a Galra mom, but I don’t remember her, so I don’t know much from that side of things, and my dad died when I was young.”

 

“Actually, yeah, that’s pretty similar. I still grew up around Galra though, and I take it you didn’t.”

 

“No. Why? Is that obvious somehow?”

 

“Everyone has solid views on the Galra. Very solid. You paladins don’t. It’s odd.”

 

“Well, I don’t like what they’re doing certainly. And I do have a very solid view on Zarkon.”

 

“But you don’t mind petting a baby.”

 

“No. I don’t mind.”

 

“See, your Alteans do mind, and that’s where a lot of these problems come from.”

 

“They aren’t ‘mine’, and there’s only been one problem, a problem that can be fixed now.” Keith was getting a little angry now, but, to his surprise, Kolom just seemed to rise to the challenge.

 

“Yeah, but will it? You’re stuck in here now too.”

 

“When I get out it’ll be fine!” 

 

“When?”

 

“I don’t know! But it’ll come eventually!” Dak started whining and patting Keith.

 

“How do you know they’ll listen to you?”

 

Keith, trying to get ahold of himself, didn’t answer, but his whole being stood on edge. Dak stood up and bumped his chin, and he felt like a popped balloon. He hugged Dak. “They’ll listen.”

 

Kolom bristled. “Put him down.”

 

“I’m not holding him.” Keith swung his arms out.

 

Kolom swooped in and grabbed Dak away. She held him close to her chest, tipping her chin down. Dak squirmed around and rubbed his forehead against her, making a tiny baby purr.

 

Even Keith, who rarely thought of things as cute, knew that this was a precious scene. 

 

Kolom purred back at Dak, sitting back down on the bed. He jumped around excitedly on her lap for a minute, before getting off and jumping on the bed. 

 

“Does he talk at all?” Keith asked.

 

“No. I needed him to stay hidden, so I’ve kept him away from talking, mostly. He hasn’t had much of a chance to learn.”

 

Keith nodded. “So, if everyone has such strong views of the Galra, what do you think?”

 

“The kids are alright, but most of the adults wouldn’t think twice of throwing you to the wolves. I don’t like ‘em.”

 

Welp, that was it. Keith had exhausted his ‘topics that can be talked about with a strange Galra I don’t know’ list. He hadn’t even had a list before he came in, so he was somewhat proud of himself for making it this far, but now he was stuck. Stuck in the room and stuck for what to do. 

 

They sat in silence, increasingly awkward as the minutes crawled by. 

 

Finally, the door opened. Hunk set down a tray with two plates on it. “Wait, Keith?”

 

“Hey! I got stuck in here, and I need to talk with Allura.”

 

“Ok?”

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

“But you can’t just keep two people stuck in a room all the time like that! It’s like--”

 

“It’s like prison, yes. Because they are prisoners of war, at the moment.”

 

“But you can’t--”

 

“Keith. I will absolutely not allow that person free range in this castle.”

 

Keith glared. “I’m not just going to leave this alone.”

 

Allura glared right back, then she spun around, her back to him. Keith didn’t move. After several long minutes of Allura ignoring him, she finally turned back around. 

 

“I’ll say this. Providing that two of us are present the entire time, that person may have access to the residential areas of the castle. But that’s as far as I’ll go!”

 

Keith nodded. “Thank you,” he said, making at least an attempt at civility in his tone.

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

“Please.”

 

Shiro frowned slightly. “You seem awfully worked up about this, Keith.”

 

“Maybe I am, but does that really matter right now?”

 

“I just want to know what’s going on.”

 

Keith shifted his gaze over Shiro’s shoulder. He knew he was glaring, and he didn’t want to glare at him. “I was just, stuck in a room for several hours, and I don’t want that to happen to someone else.”

 

“Are you worried that, since she’s half Galra, and kept locked up, that you’ll be locked up if something happens?”

 

Keith ducked his head, but his didn’t answer.

 

Shiro put his hand on his shoulder. “You’ll always be Keith, our precious teammate. Nothing is going to change that. I’ll come with you, it’ll be an interesting change of pace to spar with someone new.”

 

Keith looked back up, trying to shine his gratefulness through his eyes.

 

___________________________________

  
  


Pidge walked into the training room, Matt following her. They hadn’t expected anyone to be inside, but they had been mistaken. Keith was sparring, barely holding his own, against Kolom, and Shiro was crouched at the back of the room, playing with Dak and keeping him away from the two fighters.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! And thank you especially those who left kudos! It really meant a lot to me.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff, and then just a bit of Angst, and after that we get Space Mall!

Pidge didn’t really mind spending time with Kolom, just, Kolom always wanted to keep moving. Recently, when she had been with Kolom, it had been her and Matt, but this time Matt was talking with Shiro and Allura about resistance business, so Lance was with her. Unlike Matt, Lance was not exactly on her side when it came to ‘stay and work, or wander aimlessly’ problems. Granted, at the moment, he was talking to Kolom, and keeping her in the room, but their conversation was turning to wonderings about the size and complexity of the castle, and Pidge knew that soon they would ask, yet again, if they could go exploring.Most of the time, she would be perfectly fine with exploring, but she had already seen camera footage of every room of the castle, and she needed to finish her project in a few hours, and get it sent off.

 

As expected, Lance suddenly spoke louder. “Pidge, are you almost done yet?”

 

“You’re older than I am, I shouldn’t have to be the responsible one here, Lance.”

 

“Yeah, but are you almost done?”

 

“Tell you what, why don’t you get Hunk to explore with you?”

 

“Cause we’d both have to go find him. Come on! You’ve been sitting there for hours.”

 

Pidge sighed. “Fine. Let me finish up a few more lines here, and I’ll come with you.”

 

Lance gave an exaggerated fistpump. “Yes!”

 

So, once Pidge had finished up, they went off to find Hunk. Kolom scooped up Dak into a carrier on her back, and he fell asleep pretty quickly.

 

Hunk was not in the kitchen as they had expected him to be. The four of them checked in the yellow lion’s hangar, and even knocked on Hunk’s door, but no luck. They decided that they could explore on their own. 

 

They found many many bedrooms, all just alike, as well as twenty or so that were much fancier, and much dustier. They bumped into the other aliens staying at the castle, and Kolom got several glares, but there weren’t any other problems. They also found more conference rooms than could reasonably be used at a time.

 

Pidge was tired, and honestly a bit bored, despite Lance’s enthusiasm, when they found the nursery. Pidge had seen it before, but never been inside, and was struck by the sheer size of the room. It was easily as large as the lion’s hangars, though not as tall. There were pull-out dividers for the room, but they were all stowed away at the moment. The room was full of many different toys, from many different planets. Kolom gasped and wandered, awestruck, lightly touching stuffed animals as tall as she was.

 

“I’ve never seen anything like this!” she exclaimed. 

 

“Me neither,” Lance breathed, also looking at the room in wonder.

 

Pidge got caught up in their excitement despite herself. She began exploring the room, with all it’s nooks and crannies. Behind a massive stuffed animal, slightly reminiscent of an elephant, which she had knocked over on top of herself, she found a small door. She crept inside, intending to hide for a moment and then pop out and startle Lance. But inside, once she had turned a light on, she found herself in a massive walk in closet. It had clothes of every kind, from infant-sized to child sized, and a rack of enormous baby clothes, enough to make her want to never meet the baby that would wear them. She called Lance and Kolom in, and the stars in their eyes made her glad that she had come with them.

 

“Kolom, can we dress up Dak? Pretty please!”

 

Kolom was already easing him out of the carrier, and pointed out a rack. “Those are Galran, very, very old, but Galran.”

 

Dak, perhaps from being moved, perhaps sensing his mother’s excitement, woke up happy. 

 

Lance picked out a blue outfit, and slipped it on him. 

 

Pidge wrinkled up her nose. “Blue is definitely not his color.”

 

“Unfortunately, I agree with you.”

 

Kolom, having picked out an outfit, stripped Dak of the blue one and put on her chosen one. It was mostly black, but had yellow accents. The yellow, rather than complementing his purple color, as it was meant to, clashed. Kolom took it off. Lance was hanging up his outfit, and Kolom putting hers back on the hanger. Pidge looked around, finding one that honestly looked like Keith’s jacket had been turned into a onesie. She pulled it down and put it on Dak. She liked it. It was cute.

 

Kolom came back from putting her outfit away at the same time as Lance.

 

“Ooh, that one’s good!” Lance said.

 

“Take it off.” Kolom said coldly.

 

“Why?” Pidge asked.

 

“I don’t like it.”

 

“Ok, you don’t have to be so testy.” Pidge took the outfit off, but she didn’t put it away.

 

Lance came out with a black and yellow outfit, probably to appease Kolom. He put it on Dak, who looked similar to a bumblebee, but a cute bumblebee. Kolom approved. Pidge decided that she wouldn’t test whatever it was that made Kolom dislike red, and picked out a soft grey pajama-looking thing. It was approved. 

 

Later Lance picked out something with red highlights, and Kolom rejected that one as well. Pidge wasn’t sure why, but Kolom certainly had something against red.

 

After a solid two hours in the closet, they had a good pile of clothes for Dak. He, however, was less pleased at having two strange people handle him so frequently and long. So next they picked out some toys, and found a basket to carry it all in. 

 

Lance carried the basket, and Kolom carried Dak after he got tired of walking. They explored a little more, but didn’t find much of anything, and took Kolom and Dak back to their room. Pidge went to find Keith. She wanted to show him the outfit she had held out. 

 

_______________________________________________

  
  


Keith slashed at the gladiator. It disappeared instantly. As did the next, and the next. Keith was just… angry or something. He wanted to punch something, or scream, or bite down really hard on something. But why he wanted it he had no idea. So he started taking apart robots as if his life depended on it, which, to his heightened emotions, was the truth. He had also felt this way when Marou had drugged him, not that he could do anything about it then. Even now, this wasn’t doing anything for him. Not like it normally did, like it ought to. He called out to raise the level of the gladiators, and the number of them. 

 

His breath was coming in ragged gasps, his body yelling that it had had enough. Well good, maybe a bit more and it would stop confusing him so much. 

 

A staff swung into his side, then another on his sword arm. Keith switched hands and flung out desperately. There were still three of them left. He had to keep fighting. 

 

The door opened and Pidge came inside, a bright smile quickly falling from her face. “Stop the program!” She yelled.

 

Keith sank to the floor, his whole body screaming. But at least his mind wasn’t.

 

“Keith! What were you doing!?”

 

“ ‘M fine.”

 

“No, you aren’t.” Pidge stepped closer. “Honestly, you look like you need a bit of time in one of the pods.”

 

“I don’t.” Keith was getting his breath back, and he stood up. “I’m fine.”

 

“Then come with me. We’re getting you some ice and a rest, at the very least.” She stopped him from speaking, “and don’t try to say you won’t or I’ll tell Coran and he’ll make you get into a pod.” She grabbed his hand and pulled. 

 

“I’m fine, Pidge.”

 

She glared back at him. “Stop lying to me, Keith.” She picked up something that she had dropped on her way in, thrusting it into his other hand. “I brought that for you, since it looked like your jacket.”

 

Keith let himself be towed around, looking at the baby clothes in his hand. Pidge made him sit on a couch. She got ice for him, and a water pouch. She also got her laptop and sat down next to him.

 

“Now, sit still and get better.” Pidge turned on some screen full of data that meant nothing to him.

 

Keith sat still, still reeling from the sudden change. He set the ice against his side and sipped the water, waiting for the burning intensity of the need to do  _ something _ set in. But it didn’t, not for a while at least. Instead, exhaustion settled down over him. He slipped sideways, then jerked up straight. 

 

“Lay down, doofus.” Pidge patted her lap. The computer was leaning on the arm of the couch, so her lap was free.

 

Keith shook his head. Pidge didn’t press it. After a minute, he slipped sideways again. He got up groggily, and lay down, his head next to her lap, and his feet hanging off the end of the couch.

 

Pidge gave a light chuckle and dropped her hand to his forehead without looking away from her computer screen. She stroked his bangs away from his face. It was barely minutes before he was fast asleep.

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

It was several hours later when Keith woke up. Pidge had managed to finish her project, and sent it off. Keith sat up slowly. 

 

“Where are we?”

 

“It’s an old room I found. But that’s besides the point here. Are you ready to tell me what possessed you to set yourself up for death by training?”

 

Keith shook his head. 

 

“I’m not letting this go, Keith. I’ll tell Shiro if I have to.”

 

Keith glared at her, but its intensity was cut in half by the bleariness still in his eyes. Finally he stared down at the ground. “I didn’t like the way I was feeling, so I tried to get it to stop. Happy now?”

 

“What was it that felt so terrible?”

 

“I don’t know. It’s like, like when Marou drugged us.”

 

“Do you think it has anything to do with your transformation?”

 

“I don’t know, maybe.”

 

“Well, we can ask Marou?”

 

“No.”

 

“Kolom might-”

 

“No!” Keith glared at her. “I’m not asking Kolom about this.”

 

Pidge shrugged. She turned back to her laptop and frowned. 

 

“What’s up?”

 

“It’s a pop up ad.” Just then, the walls themselves were covered in ads.

 

“We’re going through a merchant path, and they’ve hacked into the castle and given us advertisements. We have to follow this path for at least a quintant, so it’ll be a while. The ads shouldn’t be harmful, though.” Allura said over the speaker system. 

 

“Come on to Carl’s! We’ve got the best food this side of the galaxy!” The speaker system shouted. 

 

“Look at this one,” Pidge said.

 

It was an ad for a man professing to be able to answer any question about a half breed Galra in return for a blood sample.

 

“Of all the things to give someone, blood seems more dangerous than anything I’ve ever thought of.”

 

“What can he do with it? He’s probably just a scientist interested in half breeds. Besides, we’ll be out of here in a day.”

 

“How would we even get it to him?”

 

“Let’s ask him.” Pidge called the number, pulling up a video call on her laptop.

 

“Hello? Got a half breed question?” A man’s voice said, in a lilted, rote fashion, as though he had said it a million times before.

 

“Yes. Why would he start feeling really emotional and bad?”

 

“I’m afraid I need a little more information than that, Missy.”

 

Keith glared at her, and stayed out of the view of her laptop’s camera.

 

“Come on, help me out here,” Pidge said.

 

“I didn’t want to do this in the first place!” Keith snapped.

 

“Hey, Kiddo, just explain what’s going on and I’ll help you get over it.” The voice from the laptop said.

 

Keith frowned, but he came to sit next to Pidge. 

 

“Ok, now that I can see you, it is you, right?” The man, who looked like a purple octopus, asked.

 

Keith nodded stiffly. 

 

“Good. I’ll make a guess that your Galran genes were latent, brought to the surface by some kind of Galran technology, or quintessence, or poison, or something. And now you’re trying to deal with major changes to your structure and desires, right?”

 

Keith nodded, the scowl never leaving his face.

 

“So what is it that you want that it bothering you so badly?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“You’ll have to do better than that, Kiddo. Judging by your size and face, I’d say it’s not that you’re out for blood, or women, perhaps it’s food? Have you been eating enough meat?”

 

Keith shrugged.

 

“That might be a part of it then. Tell me what you’re feeling, exactly.”

 

“It’s like, anger, but not exactly. I want to hit something, but when I do, it doesn’t satisfy it.”

 

“I see. Yes, this is common when genes change, to have desires you don’t know how to fulfil. Probably, if you’re eating enough meat, you need to play more.”

 

“Play?”

 

“Yes. Behold, the Galra at play!” He pushed a button on his keyboard, and the screen shifted to a short, soundless video of two Galra tackling one another, their teeth bared in a kind of violent smile. They didn’t seem to be hurting each other, though. The screen shifted back to the octopus man. “Understand?”

 

“I think so, but why?”

 

Three tentacles shrugged. “It’s a Galra need, probably stems from the pack-bond. Which you need to form, if you haven’t already. It’s the strongest instinct to show up in half breeds. Even I have it, and I’m barely a quarter Galra. Any other questions?”

 

“How far will the physical changes progress?”

 

“I can’t say. It depends on the amount Galra that you are, and how similar the other race is, and many other factors. I can, however, send you an e-pamphlet with instructions made by myself, that answer the most commonly asked questions.”

 

“Yes, please,” Pidge said. “Now, how are we supposed to get the blood to you?”

 

“Just stick it in a good case and drop it out the airlock, I’ll come pick it up once your wake passes.”

 

“We have a wake here?”

 

“Yes, this merchant road is made here because there’s a bit of atmosphere here for some reason, and it slows down ships long enough to make them want to buy something. But you also have a wake.”

 

“That’s awesome!”

 

“I’m glad you’re so pleased. I hope my answers were useful to you. I’ll be off.”

 

The video ended, and an ad popped up, with a e-pamphlet attached.

 

“Helpful?” Pidge asked.

 

“Maybe. So, he wants me to do the play-fighting? Like I did with Matt?”

 

“No, apparently you want you to do more play-fighting.”

 

Keith scowled. 

 

“Come on, let’s go pay the good man… octopus. I can draw blood.” Pidge said, far too happily. 

 

_________________________________________

  
  


A few hours later, when it appeared that Keith had no intention of talking with anybody at all, Pidge sidled up to Matt, in a manner not nearly as stealthy as she thought it was.

 

“Hey, why don’t you go challenge Keith to another play-fight?”

 

“Why?” The question was drawn out, Matt knew that she was up to something.

 

Pidge pursed her lips and looked away. “Can I persuade you not to ask?”

 

Matt hummed, and assumed a thoughtful stance. “I suppose if you give me half of your portion of whatever Hunk has been cooking up all day, I might consider dropping the question.”

 

“Half!? No way!”

 

“I’d settle for a quarter, with a promise of a whatever’s-allowed explanation later.”

 

Pidge pouted. “Taking advantage of your younger sister. Shame on you.”

 

“It’s a deal then.”

 

“Fine.”

 

Pidge didn’t see Keith for the rest of the day. Whether or not he took Matt up on his challenge, she didn’t know, nor did she know the effect it had on him. But she would, at some point. Because Keith was now her problem to solve, and she never gave up on solving a problem.

 

_____________________________________________

  
  


“So I was wondering, since he’s always so shy about things, why he just let us hear him purring?” Lance said.

 

“Well, I think he’s just made his peace with that one.” Shiro answered.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, it’s not a new development. He’s had that one as long as I’ve known him. I used to think it was snoring.”

 

“Ooh, tell me.”

 

“Well, when he was about… eleven or so, I met him. It was one of the first times that I had come to see him, and it was raining buckets, drowning everything, including me. I was very, very late, nearly an hour. But he hadn’t left our meeting spot. He was slumped over on the bench, sound asleep.”

 

“Wasn’t he soaked?”

 

“Nah, he was inside a gazebo, and while it was very rainy, it wasn’t terribly windy, so it didn’t blow inside. Anyway, he had slumped over on the bench, and the woman who had brought him chewed me ought pretty fiercely, because he refused to leave until I got there. She was waiting in her car, so I went to get him. She loaned me her umbrella, but I was wet enough, I didn’t see how I would be able to pick him up without soaking him. So I had to wake him up. I tapped his shoulder a few times, and called his name, and he purred a few times before waking up. Of course, at the time, I thought that it was just snoring. I did for a long time.”

 

“Why? It doesn’t sound much like snoring.”

 

“Well, he would only ever do it when he was asleep, or at least mostly asleep, and I had no reason to suspect actual purring.”

 

“Why would he let us hear it though, if he always tried to hide it before?”

 

“It might be just because we’re in the know on what’s going on with him, or it might be because he trusts us not to make fun of him.”

 

Lance shrugged. “Can you tell me any more stories?”

 

“Nah, if I tell you more than one story each time I’ll run out too quickly. Is it about time for these to come off?”

 

Lance tapped a finger gently against his face mask. “Just about, there’s still sticky on mine, and you want it to be completely dry before you take it off.”

 

“I see. Why don’t you tell me a story then?”

 

“Sure. About who?”

 

“Whoever.”

 

“Ok, well, there was this one time, my brother Carlos was sitting on a big ol’ floatie thing, out on the beach, and he had this long string tying him to shore. He fell asleep on the thing, and Marco thought that it’d be funny to untie the string. He floated away, further and further, and we never saw him again.”

 

“Lance…”

 

Lance cracked up at Shiro’s disappointed voice. “No, I’m kidding, but it did take us quite a few hours, and several little canoos, to get him back. And he was sunburned for days, absolutely miserable. Everyone nearly was mad at Marco, and he was in trouble for a solid week.”

 

Shiro leaned back. “This is fun. We should do it with everyone next time.”

 

“Oh,” Lance’s face fell. “I’d definitely like doing face masks and stories with the others, but, I also really like hanging out just the two of us?”

 

Shiro smiled softly. “I do too, Lance. We’ll be sure to do it again just us, ok?”

 

Lance’s face split open with the sudden grin. Shiro doubled over in laughter, as Lance peeled off the remains of his split mask. 

 

______________________________________________

  
  


“Well, I can see what you’re going for, and I agree that it’s a good idea, but I don’t think that I should help with it anymore.” Matt said, after Pidge had showed him what she had learned.

 

“Why not?”

 

“I think that, with you guys being a team, you should keep helping each other, and not relying on outside help.”

 

“How are you outside help?” Pidge asked.

 

“Because… I’ve got to go back to the resistance.”

 

“What?” Her voice came out much weaker than she would have preferred.

 

“Yeah, I was waiting to tell you, but, they need me.”

 

“I need you too!”

 

“No, you don’t. You’ve grown up so much, and found a real place for yourself. I’ll still see you a lot, I’ll call all the time, and I’ll visit as often as I can. But I need to make a good place for myself.”

 

“Why can’t that place be here?”

 

“Because you don’t need me.”

 

Pidge’s face screwed up tight. “I don’t want you to leave.”

 

“I’ll be here for a few more days yet.”

 

“I don’t want you to leave at all! I only just found you!”

 

Matt hugged her. “I know. It’s ok.”

 

“No, it’s not!”

 

“It is. Give it some time, let it sink in. It’ll be alright.”

 

“What if it isn’t?”

 

“If you really need me after a while I’ll come back.”

 

“Ok.” Pidge didn’t feel ok, but she knew that Matt was just as stubborn as she was when he had decided something. “What are you going back to do?”

 

“I’m going to be a field operative, and while I’m at it, I’ll be collecting samples of everything I can. I’ll be studying and analysing everything I possibly can, and figuring out how things work.”

 

Pidge gave a weak laugh, “Just what you’ve always liked doing, huh?”

 

“Yeah. Only this time, it can really help people.”

 

Pidge nodded. “I can probably send you samples of things too.”

 

“That’d be nice.”

 

“Let’s talk about something else now.”

 

“Alright. We can work out a plan of action for Keith.”

 

“We have to be subtle, though.”

 

“Maybe, if you want, but you could also explain it to everyone, get them all on board.”

 

“Keith would die of embarrassment, and then kill me in revenge.”

 

“Perhaps, but he might not. If he knew what was going on, and that it came from good intentions, it might even be able to help him more.”

 

Pidge thought about it for a while. “I can see that. I’ll ask Shiro about it. He knows Keith better than anyone.”

 

“Hey! I know him pretty well, too.”

 

Pidge grinned. “So what do you think we should be sure to do?”

 

“Well, certainly you should check for any new food sensitivities or needs. You might look into seeing if his teeth will grow much larger, and if they need special care. If he gets any fur, you should look into its care. And,  _ if  _ he agrees, and he’ll answer honestly, then you should test out which new instincts he might be picking up. Especially since he tends to follow instincts.”

 

Pidge nodded, taking down imaginary notes. Matt smacked her hands down, grinning.

 

“I’m not kidding though, before you test out any of the new instinctual or emotional things you need to ask him.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” Pidge said, more seriously this time. There was a long pause. “I’m really going to miss you.”

 

Matt patted her head, stroking his hand through her hair. “I’ll miss you too, Pidge.”

 

____________________________________

  
  


After talking with Shiro the next morning, Pidge went to get Hunk, while Shiro got Lance and Keith. They all gathered in Shiro’s room.

 

“Alright, this is a meeting to discuss Keith.” Shiro said bluntly.

 

Keith straightened from his position against the wall. His arms came up and crossed over his chest, and his face shifted into a stoic mask. 

 

“Because he’s changing?” Hunk asked.

 

“Yes,” Shiro said. “We need to test things out. Hunk, you’ll be a big help with one part of this. Keith could very well be developing food sensitivities or needs that he didn’t have before. I want you to research as thoroughly as you can, and work with Keith to figure out if any changes need to be made.”

 

Hunk nodded. Keith relaxed slightly.

 

“Lance, I want you to help as well,” Shiro said. “It’s very possible that Keith’s skin and hair might need special care. You’re already very good and intuitive about figuring out what works and what doesn’t.”

 

Lance beamed at the praise. “And you want me to figure out what’ll work for him?”

 

“Yes, work with Keith and find out what works.” Shiro turned to Keith. “I’ve looked up some things as well. We’ve not been as good a team to you as we could have been. I want that to change. I want for there never to be a doubt in your mind, in anyone’s mind, that we have your back. Always. No matter how you may change. We aren’t going to ignore it, or you. We’ll help you through it, help you to work with it.”

 

Keith blinked. His position didn’t change, other than a tightening of his jaw. He nodded, and Pidge thought she saw his eyes gleaming.

 

“Pidge and I are going to be here if you want us, for any new, or even old, instincts and desires that aren’t quite human. We’ll try to help you figure out what exactly they are, so that you can decide what you want to do with them.”

 

Keith nodded. 

 

There was a short silence, broken by Hunk.

 

“If we’re done, can we have a group hug before moving on?”

 

Shiro smiled and agreed. Hunk made the group hug last longer than any before it. Then he and Lance left, followed by Pidge. She hung back slightly, outside the door, and heard Keith’s voice, low and husky. “Thanks, Shiro.”

 

She smiled to herself. Maybe she’d been a bit sneaky about it, but it had turned out quite well, if she did say so herself.

 

______________________________________

  
  


“Hey, wait! Keith!” Hunk called out, as he saw Keith walk by the kitchen door. It had been two days since the meeting. Two very busy days. On top of the researching, there had been three different unexpected fights with the Galra. 

 

Keith turned and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Come try this.”

 

Keith came in, looking at the food in question. Hunk had been experimenting with the food goo machine, and had found that it could make a specific type of goo formulated for Galra. He had made a massive bowl of it, coloring it with a kind of food-coloring he had found, just so that he could keep it seperate. Then he had made seven different bowls, lining them all up in order. The leftmost bowl was plain food goo, and the rightmost was the Galra-goo. The ones in the middle were different mixes.

 

“Which one?” Keith asked.

 

“All of them. I want you to tell me which one just tastes the best.”

 

“Ok.” Keith tried them all, and then pointed to the second rightmost bowl. “That one’s the best. Why? What is this?”

 

Hunk explained the experiment. Keith nodded slowly. 

 

“And now, what I’d like is if you’d eat that whole bowl, and then just kind of self-monitor to make sure it doesn’t upset your stomach or anything.”

 

“Can it wait till lunch, or do you want me to eat it now?”

 

“It’ll be fine to wait until lunch. I’ll just mark it as yours. So I’ve also been looking up what makes up Galra cuisine.” Hunk wrapped the bowl and marked a big K on the top. “And apparently it used to be a lot more complicated, but as they conquered more and more planets, they just ate whatever the planet did, only more meat. Meat was a big deal for some reason.”

 

“Yeah, I’ve come across a real emphasis on eating meat as well. Not sure why, though.”

 

“Maybe you just need more protein?” Hunk guessed.

 

Keith shrugged. 

 

“Anyway, there’s only a few ingredients for traditional Galra dishes that we have, so I thought I’d have you taste them and see what you think.”

 

“Sure.”

 

Hunk had them at the front of the pantry, ready for testing. There was a spice mixture that seemed to be as common in Galra dishes as salt, and he had picked it up from an officers lounge in one ship they were trying to infiltrate. He handed the shaker to Keith, who popped the top off, licked his pinky, and touched it to the top of the spices. Hunk restrained himself from commenting that the practice was unsanitary, mostly because he had tasted it before and didn’t like it, so he wouldn’t use it in the normal food.

 

Keith’s eyes lit up. “This is good! It’d be wonderful on a steak, well, if we could find something like that.”

 

Next was a fruit. Keith cut it open, and licked the juice. He made a face, and shook his head. “Tastes like vinegar.”

 

Hunk next handed him a tuber. Keith made the same test as the fruit, and shrugged. “It’s bland?”

 

Last was a little jar. Hunk had only opened it once, but it had stunk so badly he didn’t dare open it again. He couldn’t even remember where they had gotten it. He warned Keith before handing it over.

 

Keith’s nose wrinkled up when he opened it, but he stuck a bit of the paste on the tip of a knife and put it in his mouth. His face squinshed up, like he had just gotten a mouthful of lemon juice, but he nodded. “I don’t think it’s meant to be eaten on its own, but it’s not bad.”

 

“What’sit taste like?” Hunk asked.

 

“Strong.” Keith shrugged. “Try some, just less than I did.”

 

Hunk was barely handling the smell as it was. He shook his head. “I’ll trust you. How would you use it, if you were going to cook with it?”

 

Keith frowned in thought. “Like bouillon, but use way less.”

 

Hunk nodded thoughtfully. “I guess I can see that. But how do you know what bouillon is?”

 

“I used to put some extra in ramen.”

 

“Yeah, I can you doing see that. Thanks for helping me out.”

 

Keith nodded. “Thanks for making special food for me. I know it’s a lot of trouble--”

 

“No. It’s not a trouble, because I want to do it.” Hunk enveloped Keith in a hug before he could say anything against the statement.

 

Keith froze up, but after a few seconds, he raised his hands and gently hugged back. “Thanks.”

 

________________________________

  
  


Keith had just finished training, and was going to take a shower. He had gotten a towel and his bucket of shower supplies, and was on his way there when he was accosted by Lance. 

 

“Stop! Stop right there and don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Lance ran off.

 

Moments later he was back, his arms full of bottles. He knelt down to set them down without spilling any, and grabbed Keith’s bucket. He looked at everything inside and replaced it with something else, as well as adding several things.

 

“There! That should do it. I want you to try this, and then come see me when you’re done. Ok?”

 

Keith hadn’t moved, partly because he had been told not to, but more because he was entirely bewildered. “What?”

 

“These are your new products. At least, this is the first test. After your shower I want to see how they’ve affected you, and after a week I’ll have the second test ready. I intend to have the most perfects products for your skin type and hair by the end of the month.”

 

“Oh. Well, how am I supposed to use these?”

 

“This one is shampoo, this one conditioner, this one soap, this one is a full-body lotion for  _ after  _ you get out. I want you to try using this washcloth, and use this weirdo hairbrush. I really haven’t found out why the hairbrush is supposed to be so good yet, but it is. And this one is for your face. It’s not specially because you’re turning Galra, but it’s a good habit to have anyway.”

 

“I don’t use half of this.”

 

Lance half pouted. “Well, I want you to try.”

 

Keith frowned. He took his bucket back. He looked into it for a long moment. “So, shampoo, conditioner, soap, after, face, use the washcloth, and the funny brush?”

 

Lance grinned. “You got it. And come see me after, yeah?”

 

Keith nodded.

 

He followed all of Lance’s instructions, though most seemed unnecessary. The brush, though, was really nice. It hugged his scalp, and even brushed the little furry hair straight, where before it had stuck out however it liked.

 

When he found Lance afterward, Lance inspected his hair, and his face, and his hands. He swapped out the soap for a different one, and insisted on putting a leave-in conditioner in Keith’s hair.

 

“So why do you do all this?” Keith asked.”It takes a lot of time, and it only looks a bit better than before.”

 

“So you admit it looks better!” Lance crowed, working the conditioner into Keith’s hair. “Nah, but seriously, it’s healthy, and cleaner, if you take the time to actually care for yourself. And I like being able to mix up things like this. It’s like Hunk. He feels so good when he spends a lot of time making something, even if it only tastes somewhat better than a simpler recipe. I feel the same way a lot, especially when someone else can enjoy it too.”

 

Keith hummed. “You about done?”

 

“Technically. I’m just getting the feel for your hair, and how it responds to the conditioner. Whether it’ll absorb it quickly or slowly.” Lance kept talking about hair and oils and water, and how they mixed or didn’t mix, but Keith wasn’t fully listening. 

 

He had read that Galra had more nerves on their heads, and that they were important for interpersonal bonding, but he hadn’t expected to feel so calm and relaxed. He felt like falling asleep, or purring, or both. There had been a reason that he had hidden his purring, but it didn’t seem to apply here. Lance had heard him purring before, and hadn’t made fun of him, hadn’t told him to stop. He had wanted him to purr. Maybe it would be fine. Even if it wasn’t, he could learn from it and just not do it again. 

 

He let his head slip forward a bit and closed his eyes, gently purring. The hand in his hair froze, and he heard a chuckle, but it wasn’t unkind, and soon Lance was stroking his head again.

 

___________________________________

  
  


There were a few final goodbyes, and then Matt was gone, off with Sonzae and the rest of his division.

 

Pidge was still standing in the same place. She hadn’t moved an inch since the ship had gone. Keith was waiting for her. He stepped up, scuffing one foot on the ground to let her know he was there, and set a hand on her shoulder. Shiro had done the same for him before, and he knew how comforting it could be. What he wasn’t expecting was for her to turn abruptly towards him with wet eyes and a terrible expression.

 

“Come train with me, Keith.” She said, and her voice was tight.

 

Keith nodded, and she stalked away to the training deck. She pulled out her bayard and turned on the same level as she had been so mad at Keith about before. Keith, even with her there, was wary of the level, and pulled out his bayard.

 

Pidge started hacking away indiscriminately at the robots.

 

“He went--and got hurt--by himself!” She said in between blows. “And--he had--the nerve to say--that it’d be fine!”

 

Keith focused on his own robots, trying to make sure that none of them were able to catch Pidge from the side. 

 

“And--he said--I didn’t need him!” Pidge screamed angrily. “Why’d he--have to--leave!?!”

 

All the robots had been defeated, and Pidge called out another wave of them.

 

Her screaming had degenerated into cries of aggression, rather than words. It took longer to defeat the robots, and Pidge tired out quickly. 

 

When they were all gone, she hunched over, breathing hard. Keith was worried, but didn’t know what he should do. He settled with copying Shiro again, and laying his hand on her shoulder. Pidge turned to him again, her face tearstained, but the anger gone. She rushed into his side and clung to his waist. Keith put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her back. 

 

“Thanks.” Pidge mumbled.

 

“Mm hmm.” He stroked his other hand on the back of her head.

 

Keith wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he shouldn’t be the first one to let go, so he didn’t. Pidge didn’t let go for a long time, but when she did, she went off to her room and didn’t come out for the rest of the day.

 

______________________________________

  
  


“We need something to distract her!” Lance said, thrusting his fist into his open palm for emphasis.

 

“Like what, though?” Hunk asked. He was making breakfast, and Lance and Keith were discussing how they might cheer up Pidge.

 

“It’s something I saw a while back in that merchant corridor thingy. Space Mall!” Lance spread his hands wide.

 

“Space mall?” Keith asked.

 

“Exactly! And we need new scaultrite lenses anyway, we can only use cookies so long. We should convince Coran and Allura to let us go.”

 

Hunk shrugged. “If we can get them to take us, I think it’ll work.”

 

“Great! Come on, Keith, you can convince them.”

 

“What? No, I can’t!”

 

“Yes, you can! They always listen to you.”

 

“It’s because I only say important things.”

 

“What, and this isn’t important? Come on!”

 

Hunk turned around with two full plates. “You can do it, Keith. Also, how’s the new food been sitting?”

 

“Pretty good. Thanks.” Keith took a bite of the not-really-eggs, and reached for the spice that Hunk left out on the counter for him.

 

“Ooh, what’s that? Lemme try!” Lance said.

 

Keith handed him the shaker, and Lance put it on just as heavily as Keith had, but on just a corner of his food. He shoveled a bite in his mouth.

 

“It’s… so… ugh. Why’d you let me eat that? Here, take the rest of the tainted bit.”

 

Keith laughed.

 

Lance gave an exaggerated gasp. “Is Keith, our Keith, actually laughing?”

 

“Yes, yes he is,” Hunk said, smiling.

 

“It’s not like I never laugh!” Keith said. When they just smiled at him though, he sighed. “Fine, I’ll try to convince them.”

 

“Yes!” Lance high-fived Hunk.

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

“Alright, I’ve given you all disguises, now you need to spread out and find the scaultrite!” Coran announced.

 

Of course, as soon as he was out of sight they ditched the disguises.

 

Lance and Hunk went off in one direction, and Keith followed Pidge as she went in the other. They had discussed this, that Lance and Hunk would look for something for her, and Keith would keep her safe and help her with anything that she wanted. Of course, this was a secret, so he was following at a slight distance, and looked into shops himself, so that she wouldn’t guess. 

 

It all went according to plan until he saw someone selling knives. He couldn’t resist that, and went to look. He pulled out his knife to see if the man knew where it was from, but just at that moment he heard an excited screech from Pidge. He shoved his knife back in its sheath and ran out, trying to find where Pidge was. He was still looking for her when she crashed into him.

 

“Keith! Keith! Keith! I need money. It’s called GAC. It’s for Killbot Phantasm 1! I found it! It’s even got the power glove with the cheat codes, Keith!”

 

“That’s great!” Keith said, excited for her, but having no idea what she was talking about. “But I don’t have any GAC.”

 

“We’ll have to get some then! Sell something, or find it somehow, or…”

 

“What about the disguises? We could sell those.”

 

“Yes!” Pidge was jumping up and down. “Where’d we leave ‘em?”

 

They both ran back and got the disguises. Pidge was still hopping around and beaming. “How do we sell these suckers?”

 

“Dunno. Maybe a clothes store would take them?”

 

“I like it! Let’s go find one!”

 

Pidge pulled Keith along behind her and ran all around the mall, until she finally found a clothing stall. It wasn’t large, but that was probably all the better.

 

“Can I...help you?” The lady said in response to Pidge’s hyper jumping.

 

“We’d like to sell these!” Pidge said, a grin splitting her face.

 

“Ok, let me see.” The lady slowly looked over the batch. “Well, these are some pretty eccentric items, they won’t resell as easily as some. Now, this one might be nice.”

 

Keith leaned over and whispered in Pidge’s ear. “How much does the thing cost?”

 

“1200 GAC,” she whispered back.

 

“I’ll take the lot for 500 GAC.” The lady said.

 

Keith shot a look at Pidge, warning her not to say anything, but he also caught her incredibly disappointed face.

 

“Come on, these are worth at least 800,” he said.

 

The lady narrowed her eyes at him. “600.”

 

“700.”

 

“I’ll give you 625.”

 

“Make it 650, and we’ll have a deal.”

 

The lady pursed her lips. “650, but you have to sweep my floor.”

 

Keith frowned. “Deal.” He shook her hand.

 

She pointed him to a broom and he swept out the stall, which really was small, and only took a few minutes. The lady gave him 650 GAC, and he and Pidge left the stall. 

 

Pidge seemed to have calmed down some, and was silently thinking, her chin in her fist, as she walked. 

 

“Any ideas?” Keith asked.

 

“My best one is that we do something that people would pay to see, but I don’t know what. We could also buy something, and trade it somewhere else, but it’s very possible that we wouldn’t get enough.”

 

“Well, that lady was willing to give us an extra 25 GAC for sweeping, we could offer to do more of that?”

 

“Yeah, but we’d have to sweep 22 stalls before we got enough.”

 

“25 GAC isn’t a set price. We could haggle around.”

 

“You think we can do it?”

 

“If you want that game, we’ll get it. We aren’t timed, anyway.”

 

Pidge smiled. “Keith, once we get that game hooked up, you get to play with me first! Let’s go!”

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

_ Meanwhile, back at the castle. _

 

“I don’t see why I have to do this.” Allura said, frowning. 

 

“At this point, you’re the only one who hasn’t.” Kolom answered, her voice not any friendlier.

 

“It’s because Kolom has been trained as a soldier, and has a Galra soldier’s fighting patterns. We need to learn these.” Shiro said, barely refraining from pinching the bridge of his nose.

 

“Couldn’t we just spar?” Allura asked.

 

“Nope,” Kolom said, popping the p, a dirty satisfaction in her voice.

 

Allura groaned. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

 

Shiro tied a blindfold over her eyes.

 

In front of them, set up in the training deck, was a maze. An invisible maze, and Allura had the blindfold just in case she could kind of see the energy. Kolom, seated in a chair some distance away, had on special glasses so that she could see the maze, and the room had been programmed to treat her as a ghost, so neither walls nor weapons could touch her. She hopped up and handed Dak to Shiro. 

 

“Okay, Princess, take a step forward. Good, and another. Another.”

 

“Why are you having me move by single steps?” Allura snapped.

 

“Gauging the distance of your steps.”

 

Allura grumbled, but apparently even she could see the use of this.

 

“Ok, forward slash.”

 

“What?”

 

A staff hit Allura and she struck out with her sword in all directions until she felt it connect.

 

“A forward slash is just swinging your sword in front of you horizontally.” 

 

“You could have better warned me!”

 

Kolom shrugged, but, realizing that Allura couldn’t see her, she made a small humming noise. “Alright, make a 90 degree to the left. Good, and three steps forward. Another 90 to the left and forward slash. Now thrust up!”

 

Allura let out a quick rush of breath when her sword connected the second time. 

 

“Good job, you did that well.”

 

“I don’t want praise from you.”

 

“Ok. You did terribly. It was awful and sloppy. Move your sorry feet in a 90 right, and walk forward ten steps.”

 

“Ten?”

 

“No, fifty-five.”

 

Allura frowned. She walked forward ten steps and stopped.

 

“Wait... Wait... Right 90 and forward slash. Awful. Left 30 straight thrust. Terrible. Duck, and thrust up. That was absolutely horrendous.”

 

“You can stop with that now.”

 

“I thought you wanted that? Or did you actually want praise from a Galra half breed?”

 

Allura bared her teeth and stepped towards Kolom, only to run into a wall. “Shiro, I’m sick of this!”

 

Shiro wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t think that he should just let her quit, but at the same time, he didn’t want tensions to escalate, and she really outranked him anyway.

 

“I’m sorry. If you want to quit you can, but I think that you ought to finish the maze. You’re a good way into it already.”

 

Dak was climbing Shiro’s back, and he chose that second to grab onto Shiro’s hair in order to aid his climbing, so Shiro was too distracted to hear what Allura said in response. A minute later, though, Kolom was giving instructions again.

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

_ Back at the Space Mall _

 

“We need 50 more GAC,” Keith said, counting up the coins and bills they had been given.

 

Pidge was getting hyper again, with her goal so close.

 

Suddenly Lance waddled past them, his pockets, and a larger pocket he made by holding up the hem of his shirt, bulging and jingling. He was leaving a damp trail behind him, and was too focused on what he was doing to even notice them. 

 

Pidge immediately put a finger to her lips and followed him, Keith following after her. He went and stood in a very long line at a shop in the food court. Pidge stood directly behind him, while Keith stood off to the side. Inside the shop, he could hear Hunk shouting about food. The customers certainly seemed happy though. 

 

Finally Lance got up to the counter. He dumped out his shirt-ful of coins onto it.

 

“This has to be enough. Give him back.”

 

The man, who looked very Galra, frowned back. “He’s worth more than that to me now.”

 

“No, no no no, that’s not how it works,” Hunk said. “He paid you back fairly, and now, you know how to make good food yourself, so use the knowledge, make really good food.” Hunk came out from behind the counter. “Thanks, Lance.”

 

Just at that moment, Pidge popped out from behind Lance with a loud “Boo!”

 

Hunk kind of jumped, having noticed her already, but Lance nearly jumped out of his skin.

 

“What’cha doing?” Pidge asked.

 

Hunk guided the two of them out of the line towards Keith while Lance panted, a hand over his heart as if he was dying. “We took a free sample that wasn’t really free, and I got stuck as a slave for a bit. Lance heroically broke me out though, with money from somewhere.”

 

“I found it in the fountain,” Lance said, grinning.

 

“Not very fair,” Keith grumbled, but no one paid attention.

 

“Can I have 50 GAC of what you have left?” Pidge asked, her eyes turning so large and pleading that Lance couldn’t have refused her if he had wanted to.

 

“Sure.” Lance pulled out a handful of wet change and gave it to her. 

 

“Yes!!! Come on, Keith!” She grabbed his hand and ran. They ran to the store, which had mostly earth things, now that Keith could see inside. Pidge very excitedly bought her game, which came with a free Kaltenecker, for… some reason…

 

A moment later Coran ran by screeching, still wearing his ‘disguise’, carrying a stack of large scaultrite discs, and being pursued by a Galra on a Segway.

 

“Guess we’re leaving,” Pidge said, following after him with her loot. Keith was still trying to figure out how to get Kaltenecker to move, when the store owner stopped him.

 

“What kind of knife is that? I think I’ve seen one before.”

 

“I don’t know, actually. I’m trying to figure it out.”

 

“Can I see it?”

 

Keith handed it over, ready to snatch it back if he needed to.

 

“See, I got all this junk from a friend, got it from a backwater planet. He said that he was stopped, sent away, by a Galra that wasn’t a part of the empire. Swore they existed, and he drew me a picture of the sword they used. It looks a bit like this knife, same pattern here.” He shrugged. “If it helps, call it a thanks for actually buying something, and if it doesn’t, well, sorry.” He handed the knife back to Keith.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Oh, and here, you pull out this bit of the hoverboard, and just tug on that and it’ll come along with you.”

 

“Thank you. Really, thank you.”

 

“No problem.”

 

Keith ran after Pidge and Coran, his heart leaping in his throat. When he got there, Lance and Hunk had beaten him, and Hunk in particular was extraordinarily impressed with Kaltenecker.

 

_____________________________________

  
  


When they got back to the castle Shiro was passed out on the couch in the lounge, Dak asleep on top of his chest. Kolom and Allura were nowhere to be found.

 

Pidge went immediately to figure out where the game could be plugged in, only to find out that it couldn’t. Lance had been following her expectantly, and patted her shoulder consolingly. 

 

“You can figure it out, Pidge. I’m positive that between you and Hunk you can rig up something to play it.”

 

Pidge smiled. “Thanks.”

 

“Sooo, I got you something.”

 

“You did?”

 

Lance held out a little green clip. “I know it’s not much. I got it in a hurry with the last bit of change I had.”

 

Pidge hugged him. “It’s really sweet. Thank you, Lance.” She stuck the clip in her hair. “I’ve promised Keith the first turn, but you can definitely have the second turn with me once I hook this game up.”

 

Lance grinned. Then he scowled, but there was no anger behind it. “Wait, you gave Keith the first turn!?”

 

_______________________________________

  
  


 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took longer to write than I expected, and I’m not sure that it turned out quite right, but I’m posting anyway.

But then things got busy. Now that they could wormhole again, they went back to Elis. Of course Elis was under attack just as they got there, and they needed to immediately go into battle. The shields were not up yet, so the planet was mostly undefended, and they had a long fight before they had beaten off the Galra ships. 

 

Even after, when they went down on the planet to discuss things with the prince, who was now king, and his advisors, there were issues because of Keith’s transformation. Mostly that no one liked it, especially once they realized that it was because he was part Galra.

 

After they had resecured the planet, and Pidge and Hunk had done quite a lot of work helping to actually get the shields up, the planets nearby started sending in messages. After a lot of diplomacy talks, Allura and Shiro decided that they needed to come up with a concrete strategy, something that they could tell to people to inspire hope. It was a while later, after many more talks, some of which the other paladins had to sit through, that they had settled on one.

 

They would start by securing Elis in such a way that they could leave indefinitely, and Elis would not be able to be seriously threatened. Then they would spread to the next planet, and the next. Then they would work to control the section of space between them. They would encourage the planets’ to build and maintain armies, and help them with whatever technology that they could, however, it would be primarily defensive. Once this section of space was safely independant, they would move around the outside of the Galra empire, picking planets that weren’t important, and slowly growing their strength. At the same time, they would use wormholes to flit around inside the empire, hitting weak points and providing support to the resistance. After they had a full ring around the empire, they would move inward.

 

This plan was a long-term plan. It would take months, at least, to get the ring, even if there weren’t any problems. They would be battling the empire for a very long time. Also, they would be responding to distress calls much less, which Allura in particular didn’t like. But all of them, including Allura, agreed that this strategy was the most likely to succeed of anything that they had considered.

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

“Sooo, what’s been going on?” Kolom asked.

 

Pidge had come to visit her in her room, since just about everyone else was working or sleeping. “A lot. We haven’t stopped for a break in a week.”

 

Kolom hummed. “I see. Would you rather talk about it, or should I distract you?”

 

Pidge gave a short, wry laugh. “That’s a really smart thing to say. I think I’d rather be distracted.”

 

“Ok.” Kolom passed Dak to Pidge. “Has there been any new weirdness with Keith?”

 

“Not that I know of. Hunk has him eating different meals than us most of the time, but I don’t think that there’s been any new problems with that. He hasn’t changed any more outwardly, so far as I can see.”

 

“He was in a pretty intense bonding mood, last I saw him. Has that passed?”

 

At the look on Pidge’s face, Kolom raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t notice?”

 

“No. I don’t know how to tell with Keith.”

 

“For starters, he was accepting every bit of attention he was given. Even from Dak. That’s why I didn’t let them be together. Dak was in a season too, and I don’t want them attached like that.”

 

“You mean the chin-bumping thing?”

 

Kolom nodded. “It’s part of the pack-bonding instinct. I’ve tried to keep Dak from developing it as strongly, but it hasn’t worked out. Almost everything I do only makes it worse. He’s bonded to Shiro now too, and while that isn’t as bad as Keith, I didn’t want it to happen.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because I don’t intend for us to stay here forever. The more attached he is, the harder it’ll be when he has to leave. Keith would be especially bad, because he can return the attention, and Dak would stick to him almost as closely as he does to me.”

 

“Huh. Why wouldn’t he say anything to us though?”

 

Kolom looked thoughtful. “From what I can tell, he probably doesn’t want to seem needy.” 

 

Pidge frowned. “How can I help though, if he won’t ask?”

 

Kolom frowned too, mirroring her expression. “You should definitely not ask him if he wants anything. And if you do, you should definitely make it awkward.”

 

Pidge stuck her tongue out at her. “I was asking for help. Being all vulnerable and junk.”

 

Kolom shrugged. “Can’t tell with humans.”

 

“Yes, you can.”

 

Kolom stuck her tongue out at her. “There, an expression of amusement.”

 

For a moment, Pidge thought that she might actually be serious, but then she snickered, and if Pidge had been able to reach her she would have punched her in the arm. She tried, though, and knocked Dak over. He sat up, looked at her with the most pitiful face she had ever seen, and burst into tears. 

 

“Oh! I’m sorry.” She picked him up and tried to cuddle him, but he pushed her away and ran back to his mom. 

 

“Shh. You’re alright.” Kolom said, not entirely sympathetic. She picked up Dak and held him to her chest, ducking her head down. He calmed down immediately, and then wanted to get down and walk around.

 

“Would he calm down for everyone that way?” Pidge asked. 

 

“Not if I was there,” Kolom replied. “Except he might for Shiro.” Kolom was silent for a moment, then suddenly said rather quickly, “Is he single?”

 

Pidge’s eyes grew nearly as large as her glasses. “You can’t have him.”

 

Kolom frowned. “You’re not going to take him.”

 

“We’re in a war! You can’t just try to take our leader!”

 

“I just asked if he was single…” Kolom grumped. 

 

Pidge’s timer went off. “I’ve got to get back to work. See you later.”

 

“Yeah, see you later…”

 

_______________________

  
  


Several hours later Keith got back. He looked exhausted.

 

“Where’re you going?” Pidge asked. She was in the hangar with her laptop, working on a detailed analysis of the cloaking she had made for Green, so that other people might be able to modify it to match other ships and energy signatures. She wasn’t entirely sure that it would work. Green had given her too many intuitive hints while she made the cloaking for it to be easily analysed or replicated.

 

Keith stopped, as if surprised that she had asked him. He took half a step towards her, and then stopped. “Probably a shower and a nap. Why? Do you need something?”

 

Pidge shook her head and turned back to her work. “Just curious.”

 

He nodded, and left.

 

She’d intended to ask about the chin-bumping thing. But honestly, it was really awkward. Other than hugs, she wasn’t very good with giving physical affection. She tried to be, especially since she was wanting it more, it made sense to give it more. But it was still awkward, especially asking Keith, who was even more awkward than she was. And anyway, if he was tired enough to go to bed, she didn’t want to bother him.

 

A few hours later Hunk called on the speaker system to say that he had made a late-night snack if anyone wanted it. Pidge got up and stretched, wishing that she had thought to move a couch or something into the hangar to sit on. She headed slowly to the kitchen. 

 

Hunk was cutting a dish of something sweet-smelling into squares. Keith was sitting at the bar, hunched over, and looking half-asleep. 

 

“Sorry, man, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

 

Keith waved a hand. “It’s fine, I was…” he trailed off, then sat up straighter. “Anyway, what is that?”

 

“Honestly, I don’t know. Sometimes, rather than making recipes, or trying to recreate something, I just put a bunch of stuff in a bowl and cook it. I did test it though, it hasn’t become poisonous.” He nodded toward a handheld tester, which looked like a thermometer. 

 

Pidge sat down and accepted the hot, bready square. It was good, definitely not like anything she had eaten before, but good. Maybe a bit too salty for a sweet thing. 

 

She finished it, and the thought that she should get back to work slammed into her. She sighed. “Do you think it’ll always be like this?”

 

“Like what?” Keith asked.

 

“Like, working all the time. We’ve got months, maybe years of this ahead, and I’ll be taking the same programs and reworking them for different systems at every planet along the way.”

 

“I don’t know. I never expected that we’d be doing anything so… monotonous.” Hunk said.

 

“It won’t all be like this. We’re also going to be jumping around the Galra empire. We’ve got a place to hit in two days.” Keith said.

 

“Yeah, but in the meantime, and between missions like that, I’ll be doing this. Over and over again.”

 

Keith frowned. The three fell into silence.

 

“What if we brought other geniouses with us, kept them in the castle, got you help?”

 

“How?” Pidge asked.

 

“Elis is bound to have a person or two that can be a whiz with tech. What if we asked them to come with us, and you can give them some of the work? Every planet we go to means more work, but it might also mean a new person or two to help with the work.”

 

“How would we take care of them, though?” 

 

“Coran said that the castle is set up to hold hundreds of people,” Hunk said. “The biggest problem will be that Coran alone probably can’t answer questions and help out hundreds of people.”

 

“I’m not talking about hundreds,” Keith huffed in annoyance. “I’m talking one or two, maybe twenty by the end.”

 

“The problem is that we already have nearly twenty aliens on the castle.” Hunk said.

 

“So we get them to either help, or leave.”

 

“I think it could work,” Pidge said. “We’d have to talk to Shiro and Allura, but, it could really work.”

 

Keith glowed, and Hunk, who, despite bringing up the problems, had liked the idea, smiled. 

 

Pidge’s tablet dinged, and she picked it up. There was a short video message from Matt.

 

_ “Hey, Pidge! How’s it going? I just wanted to say hi, really. If you happen to get this and you’re still awake,” He leaned up close to the screen. “GO TO BED. Seriously, I’ve heard a lot about what you guys have been doing, and I know how many hours it takes to configure a shield like that. Anyway, good night!” _

 

Pidge smiled. She turned on the video and turned around the tablet so it recorded Hunk and Keith too.

 

“Hey, Matt, I’m fine. I’m not even the only one up. Say hi, guys.”

 

Hunk said hi and grinned, Keith just waved.

 

“Call me properly tomorrow, alright? Not just a message. See you.”

 

She sent the video.

 

“I guess I’ll go to bed now.”

 

“Want me to walk you back?” Hunk offered. 

 

“Thanks.”

 

“No problem. You gonna head back to bed, too Keith?”

 

Keith shrugged. “Probably.”

 

_________________________________

  
  


“Pidge, get as many of the little fighters down as you can, and if you see an opening, hit the big ship. Keith, get that gun out of commission. Lance, there’s another one coming up from behind. Hunk, go with him.” Shiro was relaying commands with a precision that enabled them all to hit exactly where they needed to.

 

It had been a while since they had been in battle, since they had all worked together on the same project. It was almost relieving. Not quite, since it was, after all, a battle, but almost.

 

“Ok, Hunk, you’re with me, we’re going to head to ground. Lance, help with the big ship. Pidge, Keith, finish off the little ones and then head down. When Lance gets there we’ll form Voltron and take out the ground base.”

 

“Yes, sir.” They all replied in unison, moving to finish what he had said. There was nothing new to this battle. It was a battle like many before. No robeasts. Simple. Quick.

 

The battle was over in a matter of minutes. The battleship was destroyed, the ground base crippled, and they had wormholed away without a trace.

 

________________________________________

  
  


It was a break. A well-earned break. Allura had agreed to it, purposely set up a few hours where she wouldn’t have to call any of them to do anything. And they needed it. At the moment, they were all sitting down on the couches in the lounge. Just sitting together. Not talking, not doing anything. Pidge got up and moved to sit next to Shiro once he had settled in. Incrementally, she leaned on him, not wanting to bug him. He pulled his arm out from behind her, and she sat back up, but then he set it down around her shoulders and she leaned back. She was about ready to fall asleep. She hadn’t slept well in a while, and now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off she was exhausted. 

 

When she woke up, Shiro was asleep, his head leaned over on top of hers. Hunk and Lance were in a similar position on the other couch. She didn’t see Keith. 

 

She looked around, trying to find a way to get out, but she didn’t see any that didn’t involve waking Shiro up. She settled back, determined that when Shiro did wake up, she’d take him with her and go find Keith. After a few minutes she fell back asleep.

 

She woke up next when Shiro took in a particularly large breath. She blinked several times and sat up, yawning and stretching. Shiro rubbed her head.

 

“Sorry I woke you up.”

 

She shook her head and yawned again. “Where’s Keith?”

 

Shiro looked around. “Don’t know. I’ll go find him.” 

 

Shiro got up, and Pidge followed him. He went first to the training deck, but Keith wasn’t there. Then he went to Keith’s room, and knocked on the door. He knocked a second time, and a minute later the door slid open to reveal Keith, blinking at the brighter light of the hallway. 

 

“Hey,” Shiro started softly, his own sleepiness adding to the alluring quality of his voice. “Come hang out with everyone.”

 

Keith kind of nodded, his head down. 

 

Pidge came forward and hugged him, stretching her head up just a bit. Keith’s chin came down to meet her, and he hugged her back. Shiro came and hugged the both of them. 

 

Then the three of them went back to the lounge. Shiro sat back down heavily. It was night now, at least what passed for night in the castle, so Allura must have just let them extend their break into the night, since they were sleeping. Keith seemed like he didn’t know what to do with himself, so Pidge pushed him towards Shiro, and he sat down beside him. She curled up on his other side, then changed her mind. She got up and got a large blanket. Ever since the one sleepover they’d had in the lounge, they had kept a basket full of blankets by the rightmost couch. She laid the blanket over Hunk and Lance, and got another and laid it on top of Shiro and Keith, leaving enough room for herself to cover up with on the end. Then she curled into Keith’s side, falling asleep soon after she felt him relax. 

 

________________________________________

  
  


In the morning, Keith woke up having forgotten where he was. It was still dim, but not dark anymore. He was squished in from the sides, but it was warm and calm. He looked around and was surprised to see that he was between Shiro and Pidge, and that they were both asleep. The previous night came back to him slowly, and he mentally settled back and closed his eyes. 

 

He felt a sudden desire to purr, but stopped it immediately. He thought about it for a bit, reminding himself that Pidge and Shiro had already heard him purr, they didn’t mind. They didn’t find him weird for it. But what if he woke them up? What if they were upset anyway? The desire came back, amplified by his comfort in being held between the two of them. This time he caved, but was sure to be as quiet as possible.

 

The room was getting brighter, seemingly quicker than normal. Actually, considering that they’d taken the night off, it would make sense for Allura to make the lights come on quicker in the morning.

 

Pidge groaned, and stretched, slipping down into his lap rather than on his shoulder. She pulled the blanket over her face. On his other side, Shiro took in a deep breath, signalling that he was waking up. 

 

A moment later, Shiro rubbed his face and mumbled, “What time is it?”

 

“I don’t know. I’d guess seven thirty.” Keith answered, his voice barely above a whisper, and cutting off his purring. 

 

“I’ve got to go. Can you let me up?”

 

Keith shifted carefully, trying to keep Pidge from waking up. “Where’re you going?”

 

Shiro waved a hand dismissively. “Just some work.”

 

“What kind of work?”

 

“Tell you later, yeah?”

 

Keith nodded. Shiro gave him a soft smile and walked out of the room.

 

Keith settled back. He’d have to get to work in a bit too, work that he really didn’t enjoy very much, but he didn’t have to get up quite yet. Probably, he would be using Red to help weld those massive plates together to make the shield for the planet. He had to be pinpoint accurate, but also very slow. It took a long time, and he was mostly by himself the entire time. 

 

There was only Red there to talk to. Sometimes he would catch a glimpse of Hunk moving other plates together for him to weld together, but it wasn’t often. Lance had been going with Allura everywhere she went, and was learning a calmer kind of diplomacy. Shiro was always doing ‘work’ but what it was Keith had no idea. He knew that he sometimes went to the planet, especially when people wanted to talk to the ‘Leader of Voltron’, but he also had other work that he did. Keith knew what Pidge was doing all day, but he couldn’t talk to her while she did it. 

 

In addition to this, he didn’t want to slack off on his training, so he didn’t see the other paladins except for breakfast and sometimes dinner. It made this time now much more enjoyable. 

 

He missed them, though he didn’t want to say so. Didn’t want to admit such a glaring weakness. And it was a weakness. He had noticed himself getting worse at holding his temper in check recently, and because of that, he had made more mistakes. He had to stop this dumb desire to hang around them. It wasn’t possible to fulfil the desire, and just wanting it without fulfilling it caused him issues. He had to get used to being alone again. He’d done it before. He could do it again. His biggest hurdles were Pidge and Shiro. They sought him out occasionally, and then his desire came back in full force. 

 

He had been caught up in thinking, and didn’t realize that Lance had woken up, and was staring at him. 

 

“Hey, Mullet.” Lance said quietly.

 

“Hey?”

 

Lance just stared at him for a while. “I don’t know if we can keep doing this.”

 

“What?”

 

“Working separately. The whole point of Voltron is coming together, and we… aren’t. I understand that this is what is needed to save the universe, I just, don’t know if I’m strong enough to bear that burden.”

 

Keith looked down thoughtfully. 

 

“Pidge and Shiro can do it, and Hunk somewhat, but I just can’t. I miss you guys. Even your stupid mullet.”

 

“Me too.” Keith said, even more quietly.

 

“You know, I read the Galra book the castle had,” Lance said, nodding in acknowledgement of Keith, and for once not picking at him further. “There was a couple stories of Galra teams, much, much stronger than any that we’ve come across. You know what they did? They worked separately when they had to, but they always slept in the same room. I think, and I even like having my own room, but I miss having a shared room. I shared a room with siblings my whole life, and I miss it. They aren’t here, but you guys are, and we’re supposed to be the best team, practically family.”

 

Keith nodded.

 

“If I were to suggest something like that to Shiro, would you support me?”

 

Keith nodded again, his whole previous thinking shattered. “Yeah. Do you think there’s a room that would fit us all?”

 

Lance gestured around with his chin. “This room fits us. I’m sure that the couches are able to turn into beds.”

 

Keith looked around, judging the room in a different way. “It’s too big.”

 

Lance frowned slightly, looking around a bit. “We can hang blankets to make the walls closer.”

 

Keith tipped his head. “It’s still… open.”

 

Lance hummed. “What about one of those nicer rooms that Allura mentioned at the beginning? What if we went there, and fixed it to hold the five of us?”

 

Keith nodded. An idea hit him, and he very slowly let it out. “If, if Galra lived in the castle when it was built, probably, there would be a room made to hold a large sleeping area for several people.”

 

“That’s a great idea!” Lance exclaimed, much too loud to keep Hunk and Pidge asleep.

 

Pidge groaned, and pulled the blanket closer to her face, curling tighter into Keith. “Hush…”

 

Lance smiled. Hunk was awake, but not moving yet. “What’s so great?”

 

“I enjoyed last night, and the evening, even though it wasn’t the best sleep in the world, and I realized that I missed sleeping in the same room as other people. I said that to Keith, and he said that he misses us too. So I suggested that we sleep in this room more often. Keith thought that we should find one of the older Galra rooms, since it probably has a giant sleeping pit or something.”

 

Hunk nodded in an agreeable way. 

 

“And, maybe, we could all move to that other room?” Lance said.

 

Hunk looked thoughtful. “You know, a while back I don’t think I would have said yes. But now, with all of this, I think that we need every bit of comfort we can get. I’ll help.”

 

Lance’s face lit up. “I’ll find the room today then--”

 

Hunk shook his head, cutting him off. “No, Keith picks the room. He’ll be a better judge. You get things from your room, and mine, and bedding, and set up the room.”

 

“And mine.” Pidge mumbled. “I want in, too.” 

 

Lance chuckled. “What do you want me to get?”

 

Hunk started talking first. “I have stuff on the dressers, and my clothes, and my bedding.”

 

“Get my fun stuff.” Pidge mumbled. “Don’t touch the tech.”

 

“Alright!” Lance fistpumped, clearly getting excited. 

 

Hunk sat up fully and stretched. “I’ll go make breakfast. We’ll have to get to work soon.”

 

“Keith! Come pick out a room now. Then we can sleep in it tonight!”

 

“We didn’t ask Shiro yet.” Keith protested.

 

“He’ll be much more likely to agree if it’s ready.”

 

Keith agreed, and Pidge must have too, because she got up. Keith followed Lance, who somehow already knew where the Galra-oriented rooms were located. There were ten rooms in the entire hallway. Keith looked into the first, curious, since he’d never seen inside these rooms. 

 

The room, rather than being shaped like a square or a rectangle, was shaped like a circle. Lance had been right, the middle of the floor was sunk down into a sleeping pit, but it was not the exact center of the room. Rather, it was off to the side. The floor made for walking was wider, and stretched from the front doorway to the another doorway, which led to a half-bathroom. On the other side of the sleeping pit the floor was narrow, more a ledge than floor. Above the ledge was a large screen, made to look like a window to the outside.

 

“What do you think?” Lance asked.

 

Keith liked it. He liked it a lot. It was covered in dust, far too thick to consider stepping inside, but he still liked it. He could easily envision blankets covering the sleeping pit, and sleeping there.

 

He nodded. “I’m going to look at the others first.”

 

He did, but they were all, while exactly the same architecturally, somehow lacking. He picked the first one. Lance closed the door to it and punched in a bunch of things on the keypad.

 

“Did you know that the rooms have an auto-clean?” He asked.

 

“No.”

 

“They do. It’ll suck up everything, though, so we can’t exactly use it once we start living in here, but it’s great for the first cleaning of a new room, or the last cleaning of an old one.”

 

Hunk used the sound system to let them know that breakfast was done, and that it was just goo. Then Allura cam on, thanking them for getting up and around on their own, and informing them that she expected them to be ready to go down to the planet in one varga.

 

___________________________________

  
  


Pidge could have screamed she was so excited! She had finally figured out the way to write down what she had done in a concise way, but more importantly, a way that could be applied to several systems. 

 

Just after that, she had been introduced to Alex, who was an alien not originally from Elis, but living there, with an oddly human-like name. He was going to stay at the castle, mostly holed up in his room, (his words, not hers) and do the testing and tweaking for her. She had sent her project to him, and he had been able to hypothetically apply it to Elis even faster than she had the first time she did it. Pidge sent him schematics and maps for the next planet they intended to go to, and he seemed perfectly content to take it and work on it by himself. 

 

Hunk had made it back in the earlier part of the afternoon, rather than later, and he made snacks for the nighttime, as well as dinner. When Keith got back he had looked pretty happy, at least, compared to the last while. He was going straight to train, but Pidge, with a lighter workload, was able to do her work with only her laptop, and because of that, she convinced him to let her come along too, told the room to treat her as a ghost, and did her work while hanging out with him. 

 

But then, when they came for dinner, Shiro looked exhausted. He didn’t join in on the small talk about how their days were, and it took Lance and Keith nudging each other several times before he even noticed.

 

“What’s going on? Keith?” Even his voice sounded tired.

 

Keith’s eyes blew wide and apologetic, “Well, we set up a place, if you wanted, we could do a sleepover type thing, but more comfortable than last night.”

 

“You did?” Shiro asked.

 

“I helped. It was mostly Lance’s idea.”

 

Shiro looked surprised. “Well, I think that’d be fine. I think I might be too tired tonight for a sleepover--”

 

“We can do a quiet one!” Lance burst out, still intense, but not as loud as he would usually be.

 

Shiro smiled, but Pidge could see that it was still a no. 

 

The four of them were pretty bummed out when Shiro left to go to bed. They cleaned up from dinner, which, with four people, took about two minutes. Hunk put his snacks in the fridge, saying that they’d be saved for when they could all eat them. Then Lance proudly led the way to the room.

 

It was dimmer than the other rooms, with a calmer blue light than most of the castle. There was a big round bed sunk into the floor, where Lance had piled far too many blankets and pillows. There was an open strip of floor to get to the bathroom, and on the other side of the bed there was a ledge filled with stuff. Some was Lance’s, some Pidge’s, and there were a few things of Hunk’s in the middle. 

 

Pidge took off her shoes and got down into the bed. It was odd, getting down into bed rather than up into bed. There was a thick round mattress covering the bottom, and a second cushion around the edge, which she sat down by and leaned on. Sitting on the edge, it was like a really plushy couch, but underground. Keith came down in next, followed by Lance and Hunk. Keith immediately started rooting around in the blankets pile, presumably for his own.

 

Lance stood up and touched the wall just past the bed, and a large section lit up with stars. Pidge gasped, she had never thought that she’d be able to have real stars in her bedroom. Lance turned around, looking very proud of himself. 

 

“Hey, Lance, turn the lights out. We can all stargaze until we fall asleep.” Hunk suggested.

 

Lance did a quick glance around to be sure no one opposed and then turned the lights out and settled back in. 

 

Pidge scootched over to sit next to Keith. Honestly he was incorrigible. She knew he’d like someone to sit next to him, but he’d never go and actually sit with them, much less ask them to sit with him. And he’d probably die of embarrassment if she were ever to ask for him. Pretty soon, though, Lance and Hunk had also come over to sit next to them. 

 

Pidge slipped down as she got more and more tired, eventually just rolling on her side and going to sleep. None of them had put on pajamas in two days, and they probably all needed a shower, but that could wait till the morning.

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

She must have rolled around a lot in her sleep, because when she woke up her head was on Keith’s stomach and her legs were stuck underneath one of Hunk’s. She woke up mostly from Keith’s purring, which would have been quiet other than that her ear was right next to it. He’d been purring more recently, which she was grateful for. She’d never heard of purring being a bad sign, not in any kind of animal or anything. He was awake though, fiddling with his knife. She could see it at the very edge of her vision. 

 

Way on the other side of the bed, Lance slowly pushed himself to his hands and knees. He sat up, rubbing his face. He reached over and picked up a bottle of some liquid and put it on his hands, rubbing it on his face. He crawled over and offered them some silently. Pidge sat up as much as she could, seeing that her legs were trapped. Lance rubbed it in for her. It had a bright, sharp smell, and she felt much more awake after having it applied. Keith accepted some as well, taking off his gloves so he could put it on. Lance put the bottle away. 

 

Lance and Keith helped her to get out without waking up Hunk, and they left the room quietly. 

 

“What if we made Hunk breakfast?” Lance suggested, still in a whisper, even though they were away from the room.

 

Pidge nodded readily, and Keith did a moment later. 

 

Then they went and made a royal mess of the kitchen, all in the good name of returning the good cooking Hunk did for them. They came out of it with a bowl of what could well pass as scrambled eggs, as well as something like jiggly toast. It wasn’t really like toast. But they were proud of it anyway, and rushed to clean up what they could before Hunk came in, which he was likely to do any minute now. 

 

But actually, Shiro came in first, looking no less tired than he had the night before.

 

“Hey, guys. What are you all up to?”

 

“We’re making breakfast for Hunk, since he always makes it for us.” Lance said proudly, either not noticing how tired Shiro looked, or trying to cheer him up despite it.

 

“Are you, alright?” Keith asked.

 

“I’m fine.” Shiro replied, smiling. It didn’t make him look fine.

 

Pidge looked up at Lance and Keith. Neither of them had been convinced either.

 

They were at an impasse. They all knew how the situation lay, but none of them knew what they wanted to do about it.

 

Hunk walked into the kitchen still in his pajamas. He gave a soft frown. “What’s going on?”

 

Shiro shook his head. “Nothing. It’s fine.” He patted Hunk on the shoulder as he left the kitchen. 

 

Pidge scraped some food onto a plate at record speed before going after Shiro, hearing Lance say behind her, “We wanted to make breakfast for you, but then Shiro came in looking all beat up about something…” Then she couldn’t hear anymore. She was almost caught up with Shiro, but he didn’t slow down or turn to look at her. 

 

She followed him for a while, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to stop him if he didn’t want to, and trying to both keep up with him and not spill the plate. He didn’t slow down, though he did look briefly over his shoulder once, until he had reached the black lion’s hangar. Then he spun around, a flash of anger in his eyes. Pidge thrust the plate towards him. He sighed, and accepted the plate, all his tiredness returning.

 

“Thanks, Pidge.”

 

Pidge didn’t say anything. She knew her question was obvious. There was utter silence for a moment, then Shiro looked down at the plate.

 

“Do you have a fork or anything?” He asked.

 

Pidge shook her head, and her lips pursed. She would not be shaken by this attempt to change the subject.

 

“Can I tell you later?” Shiro asked. When she didn’t respond he spoke again, more quickly. “I know that you’re all worried, and I promise I will tell you, I’ll tell you all, just, not yet. Not until I’ve finished. Can you live with that?”

 

Pidge deflated. “I guess.”

 

Shiro set the plate down and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry to worry you all.”

 

“Are you really ok, though?” Pidge asked. “You don’t look ok at all.”

 

“Yeah, I am.” 

 

It was a lie. Pidge knew it too. Another lie that was supposed to make her feel better, but it didn’t, it didn’t, and she was more worried now than ever.

 

“You should go eat your own breakfast, ok?”

 

Pidge nodded. She let go of him and reluctantly left the hangar. 

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

Shiro was always a thought in the back of her mind as she did her work and went about other normal duties and routines. He became a larger thought though, as he continued to pull back from them, and looked worse and worse physically. They were all worried about him, and to make it worse, he had now given each one of them in turn the promise to tell, just, later. 

 

They had ganged up on Keith, to get him to convince Shiro to tell them what was wrong. Eventually they convinced Keith, but not Shiro. 

 

Allura seemed like she knew what was going on, but she if she did she didn’t admit it. She was spending more time with Shiro than any of them, and that hurt. Especially Keith was getting more tense, more worried, more closed off. He wasn’t purring in the mornings anymore. 

 

0x0x0x0x0

 

Pidge was spending some time with Green a week later. They were talking about the other aliens on the castle, and what would be the most efficient and humane way of getting not only them, but also any others in the future back to safe planets. Or at least, that’s what Pidge had been trying to talk about. 

 

“Sorry, Green, I’m just really worried about Shiro.”

 

A picture of him flashed in her mind, along with a questioning humm.

 

“Yeah. He’s doing something, and it’s wearing him out, and he won’t tell anyone.”

 

Green sent an image of Shiro, and then one of the black lion, and then a clock with hours passing.

 

“He’s been in Black?”

 

Green purred affirmatively.

 

“What’s he doing?”

 

Green sent an image of Pidge herself, shrugging.

 

“But if he’s with Black, why is he always so tired?”

 

Green sent a reminder of the time wall on the planet they had been stuck on.

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

Green hummed for a while, thinking. She sent a reminder of when Pidge touched the wall, and her energy was sapped, then an image of Shiro, and the black lion, but larger, and translucent, and Shiro touching that black lion and his energy sapping with a video game-ish sound effect.

 

“So he’s… connecting with Black’s… what, spirit form? And that’s what’s exhausting him?”

 

Green purred.

 

“Why though? And why would that have to be a secret?”

 

Green sent back the image of Pidge shrugging.

 

“Is he going to be alright?”

 

Green sent her the reminder of the time she had touched the wall again, and Green had growled at her to get her to let go, but Shiro was there instead of Pidge, and Black instead of Green.

 

“But he keeps getting worse and worse.”

 

Green rumbled comfortingly, but didn’t offer any other answer.

 

Pidge tried to get back to the other topic, but now that a piece of her curiosity had been fed, it was all clamoring to be answered. Green didn’t seem to know anything more about what was going on, though. 

 

_________________________________________

  
  


Keith had just gotten back from training. Dinner was almost ready, and he was hanging around the kitchen, doing what he could to help, although he suspected that he was more in the way than actually helping.

 

The others came in one at a time, as dinnertime got closer. They all looked tired and worn, but Shiro, who came in last, looked the worst. He now had permanent bags under his eyes, and was slumped over instead of standing straight like he always had before. He sat down at his spot and gave them all a weak smile, before focusing his gaze on his plate. 

 

Hunk had been cooking just for Shiro recently. Shiro rarely gave feedback on food, but they had been alarmed to notice that if he didn’t like something recently, he just wouldn’t eat. So they had been eating the three things Hunk knew Shiro liked over and over the past few days. 

 

Tonight, though, even though Shiro was known to like this meal, he just stared at his plate, his head bowed over it. Everyone else ate in silence, mostly watching him out of the corners of their eyes. 

 

Keith tried to look at Shiro’s face, but, hidden as it was under his white hair, he couldn’t. Worried, he knelt next to Shiro, to see his face. 

 

He was asleep. Keith carefully moved the plate away. If Shiro slumped forward, he didn’t want him getting a faceful of dinner. Everyone was watching him. He motioned to Pidge.

 

“Grab a pillow,” he whispered.

 

Pidge left and came back quickly with a pillow. Keith set it on the table where the plate had been.

 

“Let’s leave, let him sleep,” he said. 

 

Everyone else nodded, and got up as carefully as they could. 

 

“It’s not good if he’s falling asleep sitting up like that,” Lance said, still quiet, even though they had left the kitchen.

 

Keith was already frowning, thinking the same thing, but his frown deepened. “Yeah.”

 

“You sure he won’t tell you what’s going on?”

 

Keith nodded. “He’s… I’m worried for him too, but he has a reason he’s not telling us. He wouldn’t outright lie to us. If he says he’s fine, it’s ‘cause he believes he will be.”

 

Lance nodded slowly. 

 

They heard a soft thump from the kitchen, and then a gasp. Shiro ran out of the room, slowing to a walk when he saw them. He walked past them, but didn’t say anything, and when he had turned the corner, they could hear that he had started running again.

 

“Is there anything else we can even do?” Lance asked.

 

“I don’t know. We can keep supporting him, and waiting, but, he hasn’t asked for any help yet.”

 

“Have you asked him if he wants any help?”

 

Keith nodded. “He said he was fine.”

 

Lance frowned. “I’m sick of this!”

 

“Me too.”

 

________________________________________

  
  


There were a few busy days. Alex had run into a problem, and Pidge worked with him on it for quite a while. The direct neighborhood around Elis was nearly secured, even including secure routes for transport between the planets. But because it was almost done, there were a lot of last minute things to do, and excited people wanting them to be done quickly.

 

Once it was finished, they intended to use it as a base, sort of. The resistance would contact Elis for help and supplies, any aliens that were rescued from Galran prisons or work camps would be sent to Elis, and from there to wherever they wanted to go. Elis already had a lot of agriculture, but they were working on increasing it, and depending more on the planets around them for the technology that they were unskilled in making.

 

Because of this, the castle was a constant frenzy of activity, never a dull moment. Hunk had even been forced to leave dinners as food goo, rather than making something tastier. Kolom was getting restless, being visited very infrequently, and never able to come out of the room. She had started trying to contact people through the maintenance consoles again. Not that many had enough time to answer. 

 

The glimpses the other paladins had of Shiro were not good. He was either asleep in some uncomfortable place, or looking like he wished he was. They had tried, again, to get him to join them, but he had politely refused, saying that he didn’t want to chance waking them up in the middle of the night. 

 

—————————————————-

 

The last part of the shield was finally done. At least, the part Keith needed to do. There were five planets connected together now, with safe airspaces and protected, should the Galra return. 

 

He flew back to the castle and set Red down in her hanger. 

 

Suddenly he felt a spike of… something… go through his brain. He didn’t have any idea what or why it was, but it filled him with an urgency that made him rush out and start searching around. Shiro was laying on the ground near the black lion. 

 

Keith ran to him, checking that he was breathing. He was, but very faintly. He wasn’t asleep, then, but unconscious. 

 

Keith wasn’t sure which, if any, of the other paladins would be around to help, so he decided not to try to move Shiro. He knew that near the green lion was a stash of pillows and a blanket or two. He looked over, and back at Shiro. It would be better if he could prop him up, but he didn’t want to leave him to get pillows to do it with. 

 

He looked around again, trying to calm down enough to figure out what to do. Eventually he had found something to do. He pulled Shiro closer to the paw of the black lion, and propped him up against it, supported in the gap between two toes. Keith stayed there, ensuring that he was still breathing, though what he would do if he stopped he had no idea. 

 

After a few minutes his brain had cleared a little from the original panic, and he called Coran. Coran said that he didn’t think they should put him into a pod until they had figured out what happened, but that he wanted him brought to the infirmary. 

 

Coran actually showed up a few minutes later, bringing a hover-gurney. He helped Keith to get Shiro onto it, and they brought him to the infirmary where Coran began running tests. 

 

Keith let the other paladins know, risking interrupting their work, how he had found Shiro and that they were now in the infirmary. 

 

By the time Shiro woke up, which was late in the night, they had all been there a very long time. Pidge and Hunk had fallen asleep on an unused hospital bed. 

 

Keith had gotten up to a drink when he heard a large breath, and Lance’s excited “Shiro!”. He rushed back, forgetting the drink entirely. 

 

Lance was holding onto Shiro, and there were tears streaming down his face. 

 

“I’m fine, you guys didn’t have to-“

 

Keith interrupted him before he could finish. “No! No, Shiro. You can’t say that anymore. You can’t keep doing this. And you definitely can’t keep it a secret anymore!” He was angry, and he knew it, but he couldn’t stop. “You were out for at least seven hours. Seven hours you made us worry if you would wake up or not. You are our leader, and we’d follow you into any danger in the universe, but you aren’t allowed to go alone. You can’t!” Keith clenched his jaw and shut his eyes tight, trying to stop his own tears. 

 

“He’s right. You can’t do this anymore.” Lance said quietly, his voice as tearstained as his face. “We won’t let you.”

 

“Keith,” Shiro said, his voice also thick with emotion. 

 

Keith opened his eyes to see Shiro holding out his arms. Keith rushed into them. 

 

“You scared me. You’ve been scaring me.”

 

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to all of you.”

 

“Yeah, you better be!” Pidge said. She must have woken up. 

 

Hunk didn’t say anything, just brought himself into the hug. 

 

A minute later, Coran came in. “I see he’s woken up.” He scanned Shiro a few more times. “He’ll be alright. He needs sleep and food. Preferably in that order. Why don’t you take him back to your room?”

 

Keith and Lance stood on either side of Shiro to support him, and they carefully made their way back to the room. 

 

———————————————-

 

It was late the next morning by the time Shiro woke up again. Hunk had made breakfast and brought it back to room. Lance and Keith, who were normally such sticklers, agreed that this once, they could eat breakfast in bed, provided they be extra careful not to spill or drop anything. 

 

They had all eaten already, and when Shiro woke up, he had to eat with everyone staring at him. Pidge knew that it was awkward for him, but really, he deserved awkward after all he made them go through. 

 

“So? What kind of explanation do you have?” She asked once he had set aside his plate. 

 

Shiro thought about it for a minute. “It’s a long story.”

 

“We know. We've had a long time of being worried.”

 

“You don’t have to be that harsh,” Hunk chided. 

 

“No, she’s right,” Keith said. “But next time, it won’t happen that way. We’ll know from the beginning. Right?”

 

Shiro have a small smile at the barely veiled command. It was a sorry kind of smile, but not at all regretful. 

 

“Right?” Keith pushed. 

 

“It won’t happen like this again.” Shiro said. 

 

“So what exactly did happen?” Pidge asked. 

 

“It started after you came back, when you’d been stuck for a month inside the time bubble…”

 

  * \-   - -   - - -   - - - -



 

_ “So I was thinking… Pidge and Green have a really close connection now. They can nearly talk to each other. And I want that. But I don’t know how to go about it, or if you want the same thing, or how to tell.”  _

 

_ Shiro sighed. He was sitting in Black’s cockpit, really trying to make the connection, but with no more success than normal. They were connected enough to work together, but no further.  _

 

_ “And I was wondering. Allura always presents it as if you all pick the person that you want to have a strong relationship with. But it seems like you just picked me because you wanted to be with the other lions. Not that I blame you.” _

 

_ There was a soft rumbling, one he could feel in his chest, rather than in his ears. His heart jumped.  _

 

_ “Was that you? Was I wrong? Do you, actually… want to connect with me?” _

 

_ The rumbling came again, and with it a question. What the question was Shiro had no idea, just that it was being asked of him.  _

 

_ “Yes.” He said, hoping that it was the right answer.  _

 

_ Suddenly everything went dark. He wasn’t unconscious, but he couldn’t see. He reached out carefully, and felt warm metal under his fingers.  _

 

_ His vision came back slowly. He was standing next to the black lion, but she was much smaller. He came up to her shoulder, and his hand had rested on her back. She had her shield up, and outside it was Zarkon, pounding on it with a hammer made from the black bayard. He could still feel the rumble in his chest, and it was mimicked in the tremble of the metal under his fingers.  _

 

_ “What? Why is…?” But he knew why. Because he had said yes.  _

 

_ Shiro’s only weapon was his Galra hand, but he turned it on and left the protection of the shield.  _

 

_ Barely thirty seconds later he was on the ground. Battered, and feeling like his arm had been ripped from him yet again.  _

 

_ Black moved to stand over him, protecting him with her shield, and Zarkon renewed his attack on her. Shiro couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything as eventually the shield broke, and Zarkon stood before them, unimpeded, and raising his hammer again.  _

 

_ “Where are you?” He commanded.  _

 

_ Black growled.  _

 

_ Zarkon stepped closer, repeating his command and brandishing the weapon higher.  _

 

_ But Shiro could see, and he knew Black could too, that Zarkon was fading. By the time the stroke fell, it phased through Black, and Zarkon disappeared.  _

 

_ Shiro found himself back in the pilot’s chair, uninjured, but exhausted.  _

 

_ “What was that? How was Zarkon there? Is that how he’s been finding us?” _

 

_ Instead of answers, Shiro could feel a quiet thanks. He took a deep, slow breath.  _

 

_ “Are you ok?” _

 

_ He didn’t hear or feel anything, really, but he knew that the answer was yes.  _

 

_ “If you need help again, tell me. I’ll come. Even if I can only hold him off for a few seconds, I’ll help. I promise.” _

 

_ There was another vague feeling of thanks.  _

 

_ Shiro tried to talk to Black for a while longer, but he didn’t get any more replies.  _

 

_ The next morning, early, he felt an odd pull at his mind, and felt the rumbling again. He didn’t last much longer this time than last time.  _

 

_ After a week, he was able to hold Zarkon off long enough that he couldn’t break through the shield before he disappeared.  _

 

_ “Why are you trying to protect the black lion?” Zarkon asked him. “You know yourself that she is much stronger than you are. Stronger than I am, even. If I didn’t have a piece of her,” he raised the bayard, “this all would be useless.” _

 

_ “Because she asked me to.” Shiro said, stepping out from the shield and raising his hands.  _

 

_ Zarkon soon was able to grab his metal arm and force him to the ground.  _

 

_ “And why don’t you try to kill me?” Shiro said. “Because it doesn’t work?” _

 

_ “No. If I kill you here, your body will also die. But I know the black lion. If I kill you, she’ll kill me before I can leave.” _

 

_ Shiro managed to twist his hand around enough to burn Zarkon, but Zarkon brought down a heavy fist on his head, nearly knocking him unconscious. Black stepped towards them, growling. Zarkon let go of Shiro and stepped back.  _

 

_ “Leave her alone, Champion. She doesn’t need you, and doesn’t even want you.” _

 

_ “At least she lets me inside the barrier,” Shiro said, struggling to get up.  _

 

_ Zarkon laughed. “That’s what you think. You’ve never even seen her without her armor. She’ll never let you in.” _

 

_ Shiro wasn’t feeling like his world was spinning anymore, and he charged Zarkon.  _

 

_ After another week Black was starting to talk to him. Not with words, yet, but with pictures and feelings and tones, like Green with Pidge. She wouldn’t explain the things Zarkon kept saying though. And he did keep saying them. Many mysteries were hinted at, always with the promise that Shiro would never be able to find the answer, even if he could find the question.  _

 

_ Even without weapons, Shiro was beginning to hold Zarkon off longer. Zarkon, perhaps seeing that he wasn’t succeeding as it was, found some way of extending his time in the astral plane. Shiro was losing badly every time, despite his ability growing by leaps and bounds.  _

 

_ Black was calling him more frequently. He had to explain some of it to Allura, who agreed with him that he ought not to scare the others by telling them. She freed him up from most of the other work he had been doing.  _

 

_ Shiro was spending as much time with Black as he could. He was defending against Zarkon several times some days. The injuries he got while in the astral plane didn’t stay, but they certainly hurt, and stirred unpleasant memories. Now, even when he was asleep, he would be woken up by dreams, both of the arena and the astral plane.   _

 

_ Still Black was standoffish. She didn’t trust him, he learned. Didn’t trust him not to turn on her like Zarkon had.  _

 

_ He kept trying. Even though he knew he wasn’t doing well, even though he knew he was worrying the others. Over and over he fought.  _

 

_ Today was different though. Zarkon was wild, angry. Shiro had no idea why, but he wasn’t just going to let it go like it always had. Zarkon was larger than he was, with more experience, and a far better weapon. But Shiro wouldn’t be going down this time. If Zarkon wanted to win again he would have to do something more than he had been doing.  _

 

_ The fight was still going on. Longer, longer. Zarkon didn’t show any signs of fading, though Shiro was sure that soon his time would be up.  _

 

_ Zarkon shifted the bayard into an odd kind of weapon, one Shiro had never seen before, but which was clearly meant for capture. Shiro was caught up in it, and could barely move. He grabbed onto it, refusing to let go. Zarkon tried to pull it back, but with it wrapped around Shiro, and him trying his best to hold on, he couldn’t.  _

 

_ “Black, help me!” Shiro called out. “I’ve got the bayard. If you help now, he won’t have anything to hold over you anymore.” _

 

_ Zarkon dropped his end of the bayard and rushed at Shiro. Shiro knew he was about to get knocked out, and shut his eyes. There was a roar behind him, and a rush, and then Black, her shield discarded, had Zarkon pinned to the ground. He started fading immediately, probably urging on the process himself as Black tried to get at his throat.  _

 

_ He was gone before she had the chance to do any damage, but the weapon stayed wrapped around Shiro. He struggled out of it, and it reverted to the normal bayard.  _

 

_ He was surprised to find that he hadn’t gone back to his pilot’s chair, but was still standing in front of Black.  _

 

_ “Is… something wrong?” He asked. _

 

_ To his surprise, Black answered. “I’ve been fighting against Zarkon for 10,000 years. Now you hold the same bayard used to torment me.” _

 

_ Shiro looked down at the bayard in his hand. He dropped it, and kicked it toward her. “Then take it. I can fight just fine as I am. I don’t need it.” _

 

_ Black’s head tipped sideways. She picked up the bayard in her mouth, and it disappeared. As it disappeared, so did the metal covering her. Or rather, it transformed. She was a black lion, but no longer made of metal, and yet, the quality of it still shone through her fur. She stepped close to Shiro. _

 

_ “I don’t understand you, paladin.” _

 

_ He wasn’t sure what to say. Her close presence was making all his hair stand on end, and he could see myriads of stars in her eyes. _

 

_ “But I’m willing to try.” _

 

_ She brushed alongside him, fur sparking with small shocks. He was filled with many and conflicting feelings, none of them his.  _

 

_ Then suddenly, he was back in the pilot’s chair, throwing up. He stumbled out, but collapsed on the ground in the hangar.  _

  
  


 

  * __\-   - -    - - -    - - - -    -__



 

  
  


“So that’s why I didn’t tell you all about it before. I thought that if you knew I was fighting Zarkon you’d get even more worried than you were, or that you’d want me to stop.” Shiro said.

 

“No! Are you kidding?! That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard! I would never have guessed the lions could take you to an astral plane.” Pidge gushed, her eyes sparkling.

 

The other boys were silent, but when Shiro looked at them they all gave an answer as well.

 

“I still think you should have told us, but I think you did very well,” Lance said.

 

Keith nodded. “You did the right thing. You intended to tell us eventually anyway, right?”

 

“I’m glad I didn’t know.” Hunk said decidedly. “Although, at the same time, it really hurt not being able to do anything.”

 

Shiro smiled back at them. The first real, honest smile in a long time. “I’m glad that you’re my team. You always have my back, and that means a lot to me.”

 

Hunk hugged Shiro, sparking a group hug. 

 

A few minutes later Allura announced over the com system that they were moving. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of We Have Your Back, but not the last chapter of my work. As some of you know, We Have Your Back occurs directly after Pushing the Limits, and the next story in this collection will be placed directly after these events. 
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading! And especially thank you to those that left Kudos! My family got a bit tired of me running up, “I got kudos again! See?!”
> 
> “What are kudos?”
> 
> “They’re like likes. Isn’t it great?!”
> 
> “Sure?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading!


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